Blog

IDPC recruits a communications professional to enhance the Support. Don’t Punish campaign's capacity with a strategic comms and media plan, updated resources, and targeted workshops.

In transnational solidarity, Support. Don’t Punish campaigners are dismantling the ‘war on drugs’ and building sustainable alternatives that uphold everyone's rights and dignity

Ahead of the deadline of the call for expressions of interest on April 26th 2024, we are organising a Q&A Session to explain the campaign's way of working, discuss expectations for the Global Day of Action, provide guidance on applying to the Small Grants Programme and, in particular, create space to address questions and doubts ahead of the Global Day of Action on June 26th.

Seeking to potentiate Support. Don't Punish campaigners’ brilliant information, education, and communication efforts, we have produced a series of easy-to-print, translatable digital materials on key issues for our movement, from harm reduction to bodily autonomy.

This report summarises some of the activities that were reported from Kenya, Ukraine, Namibia, Eurasia, Nigeria, Portugal, Indonesia, Catalonia, Mauritius, Georgia, and Myanmar.

This day is officially named "against drugs", but those of us who are active in peer-led harm reduction call it "Global Day of Action".

We want a mass movement of people mobilising through diverse strategies and tactics, in a spirit of transnational solidarity, to reclaim power for our communities and bring the 'war on drugs' to its belated end.

In addition to popular mobilisations for the human rights of people who use drugs and other populations affected by punitive drug policies, a growing number of campaigners adopted an intersectional approach to campaigning, bringing into sharp focus issues related to gender and economic injustice.

Our activity for the campaign offered insights into conversations about sexuality and drug use, departing from mainstream understandings that prioritise abstinence and prohibition to, instead, embrace the importance of pleasure, care and consent.

The question of ‘when change is going to finally happen’ will continue to be a difficult one. But we can confidently say that thanks to our shared and steadfast commitment, it is much closer than it was 10 years ago.

On 26th June, for Support Don’t Punish Global Day of Action 2022, WHRIN encourages action from interested groups to improve drug policies and services for women and nonbinary people who use drugs.

Ahead of the deadline for two separate calls for projects (29 April), the campaign organises a Q&A Session to explain the campaign's way of working, discuss expectations for the 10th Anniversary of the Global Day of Action, provide guidance on applying to these funding facilities and, in particular, create space to address doubts and questions.

Produced by IDPC and ARASA under the Support. Don't Punish banner, this briefing provides an overview of the key questions that drug decriminalisation advocates should consider to demand reform.

Against a backdrop of towering challenges, campaigners mobilised, relying on a bottom-up approach to organising, to invite potential and aspiring allies and accomplices in collectively creating a world where drug policy promotes care and compassion, not discrimination and stigma.

Despite the challenges associated with organising under a catastrophic global pandemic, campaigners rose up to the challenge from over 260 cities of 96 countries, a record reach! This determination speaks volumes of our commitment to policies, services and practices that place an accent not on criminalisation, but on care, respect and harm reduction.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the political crisis in Myanmar have only compounded the dire challenges faced by people who use drugs in the country.

For the 2020 Global Day of Action, the Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation and Advocacy (CAHMA) lent their microphone and platform for women who use drugs to share their stories.

The importance of community organising and advocacy as a means to safeguard the health and wellbeing of people targeted by state violence and neglect is brought into sharp relief by the experience of the South African Network of People who Use Drugs (SANPUD) with the Support. Don’t Punish campaign.

Between October and December 2020, #SupportDontPunish campaigners put on their thinking caps and strengthened the foundations of sustainable alternatives to the 'war on drugs'. Below, we summarise the thought-provoking #NotAWebinar workshop series.

Taking cues from the campaign’s local partners, in December 2020 we collaborated with five artists from the harm reduction community to produce beautiful campaign designs ready to share.

By combining emergency responses to the COVID-19 pandemic with opportunities for advocacy, ACRDR bridged local needs with national policy discussions.

The Global Day of Action creates space to do something positive for the community, as the whole world is listening. And we seize the moment to say: 'We are not victims, we are revolution!'

The 2019-2020 Support. Don't Punish Initiatives Programme awarded grants to six projects from innovative, collaborative and strategic projects from Argentina, Germany, Myanmar, Nigeria, South Africa and Ukraine.

The destruction of ROG is a disaster for the countless people that found support, including harm reduction, and a sense of community at the site.

Every year, an increasing number of campaigners in hundreds of cities worldwide join the Global Day of Action, a unique, diverse show of force for drug policy reform with harm reduction at the centre.

With growing scale and urgency, peer led and other harm reduction groups around the world have again put the spotlight on human rights and service gaps impacting women who use drugs.

The ‘This is not a webinar’ workshop series seeks to create space for sharing knowledge, experiences and learning with fellow campaigners.

What would you like us to focus on during the webinar series planned for 2020?

Under the constraints imposed by the pandemic situation, young people have developed creative ways to organise against punitive drug policies.

Amidst incredibly challenging circumstances, Support. Don't Punish campaigners have made it clear our shared commitment to build more caring communities is not going anywhere.

Many Support. Don't Punish campaign local partners have organised online events in response to the pandemic and the need to organise remotely. A great opportunity to connect and organise across distances.

Last Thursday, 21 May, the Support. Don't Punish campaign held a pep rally / brainstorming / Q&A session in view of the 2020 Global Day of Action.

Insights into how financial assistance through the Support. Don't Punish Initiative Programme contributes to the work of SANPUD in supporting street-based people currently experiencing withdrawal from opioids amidst the COVID-19 crisis.

As we continue to digest an intense 48 hours of stimulating exchanges and learning, we share a few highlights on how the Paris Peace Forum has been incredibly enriching for Support. Don’t Punish and potentially a watershed moment in the way governance discussions address drug policy reform.

Support. Don't Punish mobilises affected communities and allies for drug policies based on health, human rights and development. The Paris Peace Forum offers an ideal platform to share our collective message.

Organisations and groups worldwide are collaborating to highlight the need to end violence against women who use drugs and improve drug policies for women from a health and harm reduction perspective.

On 26th June, we stand together from Amsterdam to Nairobi to Buenos Aires to New York to Bangkok and raise our collective voices that will not be silenced to loudly clamour for an end to repression and punishment as instruments of drug control.

In the run-up to the Global Fund Replenishment Conference in Lyon this year, civil society organisations committed to fairer drug policies must speak up to ensure the specific vulnerabilities of people who use drugs are addressed with much-needed resources.

When it comes to drug policy, civil society engagement at the UN has improved dramatically over the past 20 years. But, as campaigners learnt at the latest session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, important challenges remain.

This participatory workshop will offer a space for experienced campaigners in Asia to reflect on advocacy achievements, identify and prioritise pending challenges, and devise context-specific strategies for expanding the impact and reach of the Support. Don’t Punish campaign.

In most cases, doctors refuse to include new people to the program, even taking into account the referrals from medical commissions to methadone treatment.

We have partnered with the #10by20 campaign to make sure harm reduction messages stay front and central when it comes to the HIV response!

The Street Art Challenge was launched as part of this year's celebrations to reward the ingenuity and creative flair of campaign supporters worldwide.

As a wave of reactionary, oppressive, thinking seems to sweep our nations, the strength of this fifth Global Day of Action showed there's a vibrant, global, movement that will not be coerced.

We haven't given up and we won't give up!

Support. Don’t Punish in Ghana has been a policy window of opportunity for civil society to strengthen their relationship with government and to get actively involved in the current drug policy reforms currently on-going in the country.

Despite differing local realities, both events had one common message – it is high time to stop criminalising subsistence farmers.

Sustained civil society advocacy through the Support. Don’t Punish. campaign has contributed to maintaining dialogue on harm reduction and drug policy reform with policymakers.

So far, the Support. Don’t Punish campaign has had a very positive effect in consolidating collaborative work between French civil society organisations, and in opening a dialogue with the general public.

SSDP also started a campus group following its presentation and dialogue.

On or around the 26th June, activists and allies in 70 countries took part in the fourth Support Don't Punish ‘Global Day of Action’ – making it the biggest Day of Action to date!