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With the International Campaign for the Elimination of Violence Against Women 2022, the Women and Harm Reduction International Network (WHRIN) and Metzineres with campaign partners YouthRISE, EuroNPUD and EWNA call for an end to all forms of violence against women and non-binary people who use drugs. The EVAWUD campaign highlights the need to end violence against women and non-binary people (from now on, “womxn”) who use drugs and improve drug policies from a human rights and harm reduction perspective.

Womxn who use drugs are subject to extreme levels and a wide range of violence due to punitive prohibition of some drugs. State-driven stigma, criminalisation and corruption drive substantive health and safety harms and act as barriers between women who use drugs and critical harm reduction and gender-based violence (GBV) services. Womxn who use drugs experience GBV at up to around 25 times the rate experienced by other women in the general public. This violence includes, (but is not limited to) extra judicial killing and capital punishment, forced and coerced sterilisation and abortion, rape, sexual harassment, loss of child custody, imprisonment for mere personal possession or use, penalisation for drug use in pregnancy and other types of gendered violations, stigma and discrimination.

Womxn 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 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 discrimination, such as women of colour, sex workers, or trans women. Additionally, youth, young women and young non-binary people face additional barriers due to policies and laws on age restrictions for access to essential health and harm reduction services.

These conditions have only worsened during COVID-19 restrictions which have created contexts that have escalated GBV without matching responses for womxn who use drugs experiencing violence. WHRIN, Metzineres and partners note that, by collaborating with groups of women who use drugs and documenting peer led actions and services, the appropriate responses to these inequities and violations are clear.

Meaningful community involvement must feature as the cornerstone to all good practice responses in developing GBV services. As the criminalisation of drug use stands as the primary barrier between womxn who use drugs and attainment of human rights including the right to safety, access to harm reduction and other essential health services, decriminalisation is also imperative. Expansion of harm reduction and inclusion of violence mitigation and gender sensitive, affirming and age-appropriate support services are also critical. It is also noted that sexual and reproductive health is now promoted as an additional essential service that should be incorporated within the harm reduction suite of services for people who use drugs, and that best practice service delivery integrates comprehensive GBV services.

Metzineres and WHRIN, EuroNPUD, YouthRISE and ENWA call for an end to the war on drugs to end this violence against womxn who use drugs. Legislation and legal principles, procedures, policies, programmes and practices relating to criminal justice must be reviewed to determine if they are adequate to prevent and eliminate violence against women and non-binary people who use drugs or if they have a negative impact and, if they do, to modify them in order to ensure that people who use drugs enjoy fair and equal treatment.

Please join us in ensuring adequate resources and legislative frameworks uphold the safety and human rights of women and non-binary people who use drugs!

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