EU - Information For European Drug User Activists

[hardcoreharmreducer]

The organizers of the 18th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm developed a conference website www.harmreduction2007.orgwith information about the conference and how to register and submit abstracts.

You'll find the registration and abstract submission form here: http://www.harmreduction2007.org/conftool/

Dear fellow forum user and dear fellow Activists,


There is still one month left for sending in abstracts for the 18th International Conference of Drug Related Harm. Abstract submition deadline is 23 October. I know I'm quit late sending this invitation, but the issue drowned in all my other voluntary jobs and all the rest. I'm sure that some of you didn't wait for a late call to work on making your issues presentable.


There are certainly a lot of chances for International Drug User Activists (IDUA's) to be in the program. We have two major sessions whitch are 'users choise'. I've send out a call two weeks ago for input on this matter.


I recieved 18 messages from around the world with idea's for the two sessions. In attachement I send all the comments in one document. There is large agreement to have one major session about Hep C. Aswell prevention, treatment as 'how to live with Hep C' can be the focus.


“speaking out strong against policy's and ideoligy's that harm us (US, UNODC, etc) and what about harm reduction” and “Harm Reduction is a users movement” are the core of answers to my call whitch adress politics in our developing International Network.


I proposed Hep C and and the politics issue to be the two theme's of this two major sessions.


The comments also tell us that womans issue's and more attention for Asia are also issue's of concern that need to be addressed. I proposed to the programming comity to combine this two theme's as a part of one of the five plenary sessions. This plenary has “empowering community's” as subject.



Raminta Stuikyte (CEEHRN) and I voluntered to organize this plenary. I proposed three issue's to the executive programming comity to be in it:

• 
  The developing International Network Of People Who Use Drugs
  
• 
  Womans issue's from Asian point of vieuw

• 
  The developing European network of parents of people who use drugs (who support or cause (and can become great allies?))
  

Beside that I've been asked to propose one of the people of the International network to be in the opening plenary of the conference. The theme of the plenary is the same as the conference theme: “harm reduction, coming of age”. Not only the past but also the future is covered by this theme. We need to think about this in the near future.


And finally also the concurrent sessions are of course open for our high quality presentations.


Scholarships.

So far I do not have a procedure for getting a scholarship. I asked The Conference Consortium to give information about this. I'll get an answer to this question in the week coming.



Being active at the conference with a presentation or as international co-organizer for -and participant in IDUA's meetings are of importance for a big part of the scholarships.



That's it for now, comments and critical feedback are welcome.

Take care!



Stijn Goossens
2007 IHRC Executive Programming Comity

STeunpunt Antwerpse Druggebruikers

International Drug User Activism

HaRdCOREhARMREdUCER

The organizers of the 18th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm developed a conference website www.harmreduction2007.orgwith information about the conference and how to register and submit abstracts.

You'll find the registration and abstract submission form here: http://www.harmreduction2007.org/conftool/

[hardcoreharmreducer]

From:

The European Network Of People Who Use Drugs

To:
European Commission
Directorate General for Justice Freedom and Security
Unit C2
LX 46 1/88 – 1049 Brussels, Belgium

Feedback to the EU-Commission about the EU Green Paper for the involvement of Civil society in EU drug policy and answers to the question posed in the EU Green Paper by The European Network Of People Who Use Drugs. This document is open to the public.

Antwerpen (Belgium)

29 September 2006

Dear Madame, Sir

First of all The European Network Of People Who Use Drugs wishes to thank the Commission for its engagement in the closer involvement of Civil Society in European drug policy . We share the Commissions beliefs in an open and democratic Europe with respect for human rights and dignity.

Before answering the EU-Commissions questions, I want to provide some information about the people and organisations that have written this document and signed it. We are people from around the EU who use drugs. We've been organising ourselves on the local level for many years. In our network we have treatment and service advocacy groups, drug related peer group organisations, interest organisations and service user organisations. Europe has a long history of organisations of people who use drugs.

Since the late 90's we intensified international communications and started organising internationally. And now we're in a process of developing a European organisation of people who use drugs. We are not alone in doing this work. Many professional European networks and international ngo's , like Correlation-network, IHRA, IHRD, etc. are our allies. We accept their support and cooperate with them to succeed in our goal: the right to be our own spokespersons, striving for self-representation and self-empowerment.

Feedback, Comments and Answers

The paper starts by telling about who exactly the EU Commission wants to work closer to:

“...bringing those most directly concerned by the drug problem more closely into the policy process on drugs at EU level...”

The people who use drugs and their families and friends are the people most directly concerned by the drug problem. These are the people who are the ones most directly affected by drugs policy measures. It is clear that the people and organisations who where involved in writing this answer to the EU consider themselves as the one partner that is the closest to the core idea of Civil society when it concerns EU drug policy.

The people who use drugs want to be involved in the Civil society consultation process for EU drug policies. We're ready to provide the Commission with all the knowledge, insight and expertise that's available in our peer group of people who use drugs. Our common goal: we need to have better understanding and find solutions for real problems concerning people and drugs in our society. The people who use drugs suffer from social and economic exclusion. A lot of us are amongst the poorest in the EU. We need the EU-Commission's support to facilitate what is needed to ensure our involvement.

EU:

What are your views on the benefits, added value or weaknesses of the Civil Society Forum on Drugs as outlined in this Green Paper? Do you agree with the main elements proposed?

We support the idea of the forum being a practical instrument to channel information for policy formulation and implementation. Our network of European people who use drugs can bring useful information to the forum about European-wide local circumstances concerning drugs and about the effects of drugs policy for the people who use drugs. We also have a lot of practical knowledge about how to deal with the negative consequences of drugs in society. Our local groups often are experts in developing innovative measures to reduce drug related harm. We strongly support evidence based work. We can provide our information by carrying out structured questionnaires.

Because the European Network of People using drugs is a new and developing European network, the “credibility criteria” to be in the forum can be an obstacle for our involvement at present. Awaiting the call to select members by the EU Commission, a lot of the work to meet this criterium will be done. If the Commission agrees about the importance of the involvement of people who use drugs, we need the Eu's cooperation and support working together to meet the criteria. A lot of the existing European networks in the drugfield are often already professionalised or have the means to stably maintain their organisations. Our network exists mainly out of local groups who represent marginalised and socially excluded people. Compared to the established networks, we are behind and have a need for a catch up. This is to ensure we have the same chances for involvement as other partners in the field.

EU:

What are your views on the benefits, added value or weaknesses of thematic linking of the existing networks as outlined here and for what thematic areas could this be adopted? Do you agree with the main elements proposed?

As people who use drugs, we welcome the opportunity to link existing networks and develop a unified, pragmatic response to drug policy based around the thematic areas of empowering communities, existing best practise, public health interventions, human rights, patient rights, Harm Reduction, the struggle against hepatitis and HIV and the struggle against poverty and social exclusion.

The thematic linking of networks can again bring back together the forum members as partners along with other relevant actors depending on the issue. After first listening to the core-stakeholders from their specific point of view, it gives a chance to now go a step further and connect partners on common issue's to work together .

The linked networks should be able to integrate the different angels from different players on specific theme's and bring together stakeholder-specific information. All this will stimulate continuing cooperation among the networks and feedback to the EU-Commission and the drug forum about direction.Tto work towards, or about difficulties to overcome, or about common concerns, etc. There certainly should be enough attention for bringing back the information not only to both the EU-level, and also the local level.

EU:

Do you see the Civil Society Forum and the thematic linking of existing networks as complementary or as alternatives to each other? Please provide details on how arrangements could work out in either case.

The bringing together of different experiences and thoughts should always be viewed as complementary, particularly when we are all focused on the shared goal of preserving life and reducing harm to the individual. The forum would give us the opportunity to provide information and feedback from our specific point of view. At the same time it provides an opportunity to other stakeholders to also inform and feedback from their specific point of view. Apart from the forum being a direct line of communication it can be the start- and feedback point for the linked networks.

The information received in the drugs forum and the input from other EU communication channels feeds the Thematically linked networks and connects some of the forum members to other relevant European networks to work on specific issues. After first listening to the core-stakeholders from their specific point of view in the forum, it gives a chance to now go a step further and connect partners on common issue's to work together t. The linked networks should be able to integrate the different angels from different actors on specific theme's and bring together stakeholder-specific information to formulate advise about directions to work to, or about difficulty's to overcome, or about common concerns, etc.

Arrangements could include EU support for our members to be able to regularly meet, and also to be able to participate in conferences in our interest across Europe. This means the need for covering travel and hotel costs, covered expenses and conference registration fees.

Also modern tools for communication within the network and certainly for communication with all our partners and allies are needed. Tools like telephone lines and Internet, teleconferencing, a website, web-TV (web-cast), etc.

To make all of the above come true, the network of course also needs support for maintaining an organisational staff.

EU:

Do you consider any of the examples of consultation practises listed in the annex to be particularly relevant as a basis for structuring the dialogue on drugs, and if so, why?

There are two examples given that are of interest for our involvement: The Representative civil society (ngo) networks and the combination of two level fora . These two examples cover two major issues of importance for the people who use drugs: health and socio-economic affairs.

On the one hand there's the 'representative civil society (ngo) networks which deal with issues like social exclusion, basic rights and the improvement of the socio-economic position of EU citizens. These are issues of great concern for us because of many of our members ,in every day life, experience difficulties in these fields.

On the other hand we have the combination of the two level fora which covers health as an issue. The health policy forum and open forum covers issues of public health in a broad perspective. Taking in to account that the drug issue is a public health issue, the people who use drugs certainly have their place in this forum. The HIV think tank and civil society forum needs the people who use drugs in it for the obvious reason that HIV and other bbv's are a very real problem for a good many of the people who use drugs.

EU:

Would your organisation be willing to participate in a structured dialogue with the European Commission

The European Network Of People Who Use Drugs wants to be involved in the Civil society consultation process for EU drug policies. We're ready to provide the Commission with all the knowledge, insight and expertise that's available in our peer group of people who use drugs. The most profound need is to establish our network and ensure our involvement in EU drug policy,arises from the fact that no group of people ever attained improvement of unwanted socio-economic positions and improvement in health issues without the involvement of those directly affected by this. Yes we do want to be involved.

Yours sincerely,

The European Network Of People Who Use Drugs




Stijn Goossens
International Drug User Activist
STeunpunt Antwerpse Druggebruikers
Lange Lozanestraat 14
2018 Antwerpen
Belgium
0032 479 982271
steunpuntantwerpsedruggebruikers@yahoo.com
STeunpuntAntwerpseDruggebruikersOnline




Marianna Iwulska
MALOPOSKIE STOWARZYSZENIE UCZESTNIKOW PROGRAMOW SUBSTYTUCYJNYCH "WYZWOLENIE"
Katarzyny 3
Krakow
Poland
metax.box@interia.pl




José Carbonell Viscasillas
Coordinator / president
Association of Users In Maintenance Metadona Organized
Seeded Enrique remain silent 116 1º 2ª
CP. 08009 Barcelona
Spain
Tle. 0034 615681422
Fax. 0034 2385854
E-mail. aummo@hotmail.com




Camil DUMiTRiU
Executive Director
INTEGRATION
Bucharest, Romania
Mobile: +4 0740.219.111
E-mail:camil.dumitriu@integration.org.ro ,
office@integration.org.ro
URL: www.integration.org.ro




Joergen Kjaer
President
Danish Drug Users Union/BrugerForeningen
30.3. Korsgade
2200 Copenhagen N.
Denmark
Phone +045 3536 0150
Fax +045 3524 5231
www.brugerforeningen.dk
jk@brugerforeningen.dk




James Grieve
Chair
National Users Network
120 Greenfield Road,
Carpenders Park,
Watford,
Hertfordshire
WD19 5DQ
United Kingdom
jamesgrieve@ntlworld.com




Zarir Simrin
User Activist
PASSAGE
"Association for Protection of Drug Users Rights"
Mobile:+389 / 70 - 599269
Tel:+389 / 2 - 3176428 (from 13:00 to 19:00)
Fax:+389 / 2 - 3130038
zarsim2001@yahoo.com
passageassociation@yahoo.com
Kapan an lokal 3, 1000 Skopje, MACEDONIA




John Howard
Reading User Forum (RUF)
Bowman House,
2-10 Bridge Street
Reading
Berkshire
RG1 2LU
UK
ruf@sent.com
+447708757416




Suomen Lumme
Finnish Drug User Union
Helsinki
0035 844 911 69 04
suomenlumme@hotmail.com




Milena Naydenova
Executive Director
Hope
Sofia, Hungary

Telephone: 00359 898 949583

Email:

hope_sofia.bg@abv.bg

Website:

www.nadejda.org

Marco Jesse
JES Bremen e.V.
Findorffstr. 94
28 215 Bremen
Germany
+49 / 421 / 35 48 95
jesbremen@aol.com
www.jesbremen.de




Willemijn Loss
Amsterdam Drug Users Union (MDHG)
Jonas Daniël Meijerplein 30
1011 RH Amsterdam
The Netherlands
tel. : +31 / (20) 624 47 75
fax.: +31 / (20) 638 28 40
e-mail: willemijn@mdhg.nl
website: www.mdhg.nl




Anna Millington
Parents Who Use (PWU)
North East
United Kingdom
annamilington1994@msn.com




Joep Oomen
Member of the Board
Trekt Uw Plant
Lange Lozanestraat 14
2018 Antwerpen
Belgium
0032 3 237 02 25
TrektUwPlant@yahoo.com
TrektUwPlantOnline




Andria Efthimiou-Mordaunt MSc
C/O Drugscope, 32-36 Loman Street
London, England,
SE1 OEE, UK.
00+ 44 7841 433 187
www.usersvoice.org.uk




Theo Van Dam
International Drug User Activist
LSD (BV)
Nederland
theo@lsd.nl




Daren Garratt
Executive Director
The Alliance
4th Floor, 9 Marshalsea Road
London
SE1 1EP
malliance@btconnect.com
www.m-alliance.org.uk




Zoubëir Khaldi
President
Breakline Peer Support
Vandenpeereboomstraat 71
2140 Borgerhout
Belgium
Zoukhaldi@yahoo.com
BreaklinePeerSupportOnline




Dirk Scaeffer
International Drug User Activist
JES Network,
c/o DAH, Dieffenbachstr.33
10967 Berlin
Germany
Phone:+49-30-69008756
www.jes-netzwerk.de
jes-sprecherrat@yahoogroups.de




Jimi of HUG
Hertfordshire User Group
HUG @ Focus,
Gable House,
Prince Edward Street,
Berkhampstead
Hertfordshire,
HP4 3EZ
United Kingdom




Philippe De Craene
Drug User Activist
VOLVOX
Burchtgracht 14
2000 Antwerpen
Belgium
fa255099@skynet.be
VolvoxOnline




Grant McNally
Drug User Activist
London
United Kingdom
gmc5@btinternet.com




M Goldstein
International Drug User Activist
42 stoops road,
Bessacarr
Doncaster
United Kingdom
nickmarxs@btinternet.com

[hardcoreharmreducer]

(please post this letter on your mailing lists and on your forums)

Dear Fellow Drug User Activists,

Opportunity calls for European Drug User Activism. We need the attention of all the European DUA and DUA organizations. Our continued activity's and presence at various forums in Europe has become a chain of events leading us toward European Drug User Activists work to have an official network and present us as partners in EU drugs policy. We need all of us to work together to manage this break trough for our involvement at EU-level.

The story of 2006 until now, and what to expect for the months coming

This story of last year is the story as seen from my own point of view. Other people will be able to tell similar story's about the same and a-like events. For instance, I'm sure that the French DUA have worked their part in this story, but since the Belfast IHRC in 2005 we lost contact. For the first time in 1,5 year we now have a chance to meet again and I'm looking forward to it. Always close by is the IHRD network. Most of the items in the story are the work of collaboration between individual, Encod, and IHRD activists.

January 2006 EU conference
March 2006 Correlation meeting in Krakow
May 2006 International Drug User Activists Congress in Vancouver
June 2006 EU Green Paper
September 2006 EDUA answer to the EU Green Paper
November 6, 2006 Two IDUA speak at EU-Parliament
November 16-18, 2006 EDUA meeting Torino
??? Follow up Torino meeting


EU conference, January 2006
Early this year (in January) EDUA were invited at the EU consultation conference as a preparation for the EU Green Paper for the involvement of civil society. We managed to have the involvement of the people who use drugs to be in the document that came out of this conference.

Correlation meeting in Krakow, March 2006
In March there was a meeting of EDUA at a Correlation-Network seminar in Krakow Poland. It was an opportunity to inform the attending EDUA about what was going on with the EU and also about what was planned for the Vancouver conference. In Krakow there also was a first meeting with Polish DUA in preparation of the 2007 IHRC in Warsaw.

International Drug User Activists Congress in Vancouver, May 2006
In May we met again in Vancouver. At the IHRC we saw UNAIDS presenting a strategy with the involvement of the people who use drugs as a pillar. We declared a statement and managed to establish an informal network of International DUA at the International Drug User Activists Congress. A lot of the European organizations were active translating the International declaration.

We plan to formalize the global network into an official one during this year. To make the International Network happen it's needed (among other things) to have organized regional networks to support this. This means that working to have a European Network is at the same time working to have the International Network. (btw: maybe this should be IDUA's goal toward Warsaw: work on regional networks who then should be able to officialize the International Network (nothing more then a thought))

EU Green Paper, June 2006
As follow up to the EU conference in January, the EU-Commission released a Green Paper in June The paper contains questions for civil society about how to organize civil society consultation for EU drug policy.

EDUA answer to the EU Green Paper, September 2006,
23 European organizations of people who use drugs sign the answer they've formulated to the EU Commissions Green Paper. The Commission now will decide what to do and release a call for involvement in the near(?) future.

Two EDUA speak at EU-Parliament, 6 November 2006
Milena Naydenova from Hope, Bulgaria speaks in the session “Harm Reduction policy and principles” in a two day conference in the EU Parliament. I myself (Stijn Goossens from STAD Belgium) chair this session. People who are interested to attend this event can register through the conference link above. Our participation in this conference fit's good in our agenda if you take into account the process that we're in for our involvement at EU level.

European DUA meet in Torino , November 16-18
Correlation-Network offered to facilitate a EDUA meeting during the Correlation empowerment seminar in Torino in November. The Correlation expert group 'empowerment' has User Activists, service providers and a network of parents of people who use drugs as members. With a group of EDUA already going to the seminar we could ad an additional 9 EDUA to get to Torino. We now have a group of about 18 EDUA who meet in November.

A big part of this group was involved in EDUA's answer to The EU Commissions Green Paper. The Torino meeting can be used by EDUA as a step in the preparation for our involvement as an official partner for the EU Commission.

The group who'll meet in Torino got shape in an unstructured way. Invitation mainly went randomly to EDUA who I met on the international level past years. I apology for that, but we have to start off somewhere because of lack of an operational network at this moment.

We need all of your comments and thoughts and cooperation to be able to take our activism to the next level. International Drug User Activism is for a big part taking place in cyberspace. The moments that we meet face to face are scarce and we often will have problems in getting all people who are working and involved in live meetings. In the end being able to be on line and work on line is thé tool for international DUA to communicate and organize.

I certainly ask the European Drug User Activist who will not be in Torino to communicate about their idea's and wishes for European Drug User Organizing on line.

Later this week I'll open debate (on line to get to an agenda and all for the Torino meeting.

This are the participating Activists:
(list is not yet definitive, will be end of the week)

Sweden, Berne Stalenkrantz, berne.stalenkrantz@svenskabrukarforeningen.se
Bulgaria, Milena Naydenova, hope_sofia.bg@abv.bg
Spain, José Carbonell, info@grupigia.com
France, Fabrice Olivier, asud@club-internet.fr
Macedonia, Zarir Simrin , zarsim2001@yahoo.com
Switzerland, Dirce Bloechlinger, dirce.bloechlinger@vevdaj.ch
Romania, Camil Dumitriu, camil.dumitriu@integration.org.ro
Denmark, Winnie Joergensen, wj@brugerforeningen.dk
Italy Alessandro Orsi orsi.alessandro@seat.it
Germany, Marco Jesse, jesbremen@aol.com
Poland, Marianna Iwulska, masia44@gmail.com
UK, Anna Millington, annamillington1994@msn.com
Belgium, Stijn Goossens, hardcoreharmreducer@yahoo.com
The Netherlands, Theo van Dam, Theo@LSD.nl
UK, Andria Efthimiou, Andria3a@yahoo.co.uk
Italy Maria Teresa Ninni asertam@tiscali.it
Spain Victor Feijoo Fernández asutou@msn.com


Follow up Torino meeting (to think of)
The meeting in Torino will not be the end of the road we're walking. The results of Torino have to get back to our common working place: cyberspace. We'll go step by step doing what is needed to be organized and accepted as partner by international institutions, body's, ngo's, etc.



This was an opening message for European Drug User Activists uniting. I hope to have your comments on this. I'll proceed contacting you in the days coming to have your input for the November meeting. Be ready!

Grtz
Stijn Goossens
TrektUwPlant
Breakline Peer Support
HarmReductionTheorie
InternationalDrugUserActivists
STeunpuntAntwerpseDruggebruikers
www.HaRdCOREhARMREdUCER.be

[hardcoreharmreducer]

Hy,

You'll find the latest about European Drug User Activism through the link here below:

European Drug User Activists At Work

grtz
Sxxx

[hardcoreharmreducer]

Hello my European activist friends,

I send out this info for European activists first to avoid confusion with the work that we'll do for the International network and the International Harm Reduction Conference.


This email contains some work that activists who met in Torino last year agreed on to do. We do this to be able to ensure the involvement of the European Network Of People Who Use Drugs in European drugs policy's.


We had agreement on some tasks to do for achieving our goals


- Make a EDUA document about our common vision and goals
- How to make the European Network official?
- prepare framework for respons to EU-calls
- The story of 2007, counting back from 1 November 2007 to January 2007
- The Vancouver declaration in Spanish and French


Additional:
- integration sessions with activists from the Baltic States, Ukraine, Russia en Georgia
- 1 November: international drug user day


Working group 1: make a EDUA document on our common vision and goals
In Torino we brought together on a flip chart issues of importance for European Drug User Activists.


Daren Garratt, Masia Iwulska and Fabrice Olivier (or another Assud represent) volunteered to make a document of this. This document will have 2 pages maximum. I propose Daren to chair this working group as he is an experienced activist and also English speaking witch is good for editing.


This is what was written down on the flip chart:
- The Vancouver Declaration is (also for European DU) basic document no1.
- Education (for users, for politicians, ...)
- Campaigning
- Evidence based
- Network umbrella/official EDU Network (makes it possible to attract funding)
- Equality in Europe for treatment and harm reduction. The right to get the right medication
- Regular EDU meetings
- International network supports local activism
- No discrimination on product
- Rights and responsibility's
- Harm reduction = public health
- Consuming drugs gives us pleasure
- Human rights
- To be treated with respect and dignity
- Have a voice of our own and to be heard


This document will be (after the Vancouver declaration) basic document no.2 for EDU. The Vancouver Declaration explains in general who we are and what we want. This second document that we'll write goes more into detail.


If the working group has issues that we didn't think of in Torino, they can integrate this also in the document. The document that comes out of this working group is a draft document witch needs final agreement by the bigger group.


Daren, Masia and Olivier, what do you think is a good dead line for delivering the draft document?


Working group 2: how to make the European Network Of People Who Use Drugs official?
Milena Naydenova, Berne Stalenkranz and Stijn Goossens will look at different ways and possibility's of how to make the European Network an official organization. We'll gather info about this in the months coming. The work for this goes parallel with the preparations for the international network of people who use drugs that'll start very soon now.


This working group needs to work out a step plan with all the things in it that are needed to achieve the goal of an independend European network. Milena Berne, what is a good dead line to come up with a step plan?




Prepare framework for respons to EU-calls
The EU Commission will take next step in the involvement process in April 2007. There will be a call for proposals on at least four issues:
- information;
- dialog with civil society;
- minorities (not only ethnic);
- adolescents at risk.


The people who use drugs obviously fit into all of these issues. In autumn the EU Commission will decide about which proposals to accept and fund. Milena volunteered to work out a framework/structure that takes into account all 4 issues and that involves all European country's we represent.


If the EU calls in April, then I think a first version of this should be ready early March, maybe even sooner. Milena, what do you think?


The story of 2007, counting back from 1 November 2007 to January 2007
Daren will make the story of 2007 (yep, you can regret your enthusiasm now). This will a low us to work in detail and at the same time keep an eye on the bigger picture. I suggest to maybe work on it with Zarir from Macedonia. Zarir has let me know that he's available to be active.


The job is to first look for all the dates, events and issues that needs to be in the story. Then make it a nice story that everyone believes in (this is not a joke.


The Vancouver declaration in Spanish and French
José Carbonell already has send us the declaration in Spanish.
Pierre Chappard Has set himself a dead line on 15 February to come up with the declaration in French.


Through this link you can read the declaration in 15 languages




Additional
Integration sessions with activists from the Baltic States and Ukraine, Russia and Georgia at IHRC.
Up until now we have Bulgaria (Milena) and Romania (Camil) as the most eastern border of our network in terms of geografie. The Baltic States, Ukraine, Russia and Georgia are the most Eastern country's in Europe. At the 2007 IHRC in Warsaw there will be some activists of these country's. We should make use of the fact that some of us will be able to meet face to face and get to know each other in Warsaw. After this we need to build the European network together with them.


I'll include working on this in the lines of work for the International network and IHRC in Warsaw.


1 November: International drug user day
In Torino we confirmed 1 November as international day for the people who use drugs. This is to think of and discuss (also with the international group).

That's it for now.



All the best
Stijn Goossens


WWW.HaRdCOREhARMREdUCER.BE
2007 IHRC Executive Program Committee