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Eliminate violence against women and gender diverse people who use drugs
Highlighting the need to end violence against women and gender diverse people who use drugs and improve drug policies from a feminist, human rights and harm reduction perspective.
The Eliminate Violence Against Women and Gender Diverse People Who Use Drugs campaign highlights the need to end violence against women and gender diverse people who use drugs and improve drug policies from a feminist, human rights and harm reduction perspective.
An international, collaborative campaign
With the International Campaign for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Gender Diverse People Who Use Drugs, the Women and Harm Reduction International Network (WHRIN) and The Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL) with campaign partners YouthRISE, EuroNPUD and EWNA call for an end to all forms of violence against women and gender diverse people who use drugs. The Campaign highlights the need to end violence against women and gender diverse people who use drugs and improve drug policies from a feminist, human rights and harm reduction perspective.
Women and gender diverse people who use drugs are subject to extreme levels and a wide range of violence due to patriarchal norms combined with punitive prohibition of some drugs. State-driven stigma, criminalisation, harmful gender norms, and corruption drive substantive health and safety harms. These act as barriers for women and gender diverse people who use drugs accessing critical harm reduction and gender-based violence (GBV) services.
The treatment of Women and Gender Diverse People Who Use Drugs
Women and gender diverse people who use drugs around the world can face arbitrary detention, extortion, police violence, torture and ill-treatment, with well over a third of women in prison for drug offences and with the incarceration of women for drug offences spiking globally by 53% since 2000.
Due to the so-called “war on drugs”, survivors have little recourse and often no support, particularly in cases of violence from police, prison guards and compulsory ‘treatment’ centre staff. The experiences of violence against women who use drugs are even more extreme for those facing intersecting oppressions such as women of colour, sex workers, or trans women. Additionally, young people face more barriers to accessing essential health and harm reduction services due to policies and laws on age restrictions, affecting young women and gender diverse people.
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Campaign to eliminate violence against women and gender diverse people who use drugs
Women and gender diverse people who use drugs are subject to extreme levels and a wide range of violence due to patriarchal norms combined with punitive prohibition of some drugs.
