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The Georgian drug policy calls for radical changes. Currently, it is aimed at the strict punishment of drug users and their isolation from the society. Data of the 2016 Council of Europe report show that every third prisoner in Georgia is convicted for drug-related crimes. However, such repressive approaches do not make people quit drugs. In prisons, people suffer from the abstinence syndrome and lose their health as well as years of their lives. Authorities think that the prison “cures” people, but according to the research studies by Human Rights Education and Monitoring Centre (EMC), 89% of drug users go back to drugs after they are released. The rest of them return to their drug using habits within 11 months.

The first results of the COBA-Cohort, a project associated with the COBATEST Network, are now available online. The study is a cohort of HIV-negative men who have sex with men (MSM) tested for HIV in community-based voluntary counselling and STI/HIV testing (CBVCT) in six different European countries. The full report can be read here.

At AIDS 2018 to be held in Amsterdam, Ukraine will be the focus of attention. It is one of the leading countries in terms of HIV transmission, with half of people living with HIV not knowing their status and the war in the east of the country combined with hundreds of thousands of migrants contributing to the aggravation of the situation with HIV. Our article highlights what expectations representatives of Ukraine have from AIDS 2018 and what experiences they are ready to share.

Since 20 December last year, no new patients have been enrolled in the opioid substitution treatment programme in Kazakhstan. This decision based on the governmental inspection results led to concerns among civil society activists and medical professionals and to panic among people who use drugs.

Traditionally, there is an understanding that human right defenders organize actions, protest by the parliament, or we think of them as of those having legal education and regularly going to courts. However, every person can be a human right defender. Each specialist who provides services to vulnerable groups is, in fact, a human rights defender.

We discussed the human rights issues in the context of HIV in Russia with Mikhail Golichenko. Mikhail Golichenko is a lawyer and Senior Policy Analyst at the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network — organization, which has a special consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Previously, Mikhail was a Legal Officer with the UNODC Country Office in Moscow. His work is focused on the promotion of human rights and addressing legal barriers to accessing health rights and effective HIV/AIDS prevention and care programs for prisoners and people who inject drugs. He holds a Candidate of Sciences degree (PhD equivalent) in Law.