Note of clarification

The term “harm reduction” is used in some of the case studies included in the present publication. From the point of view of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme, the term is meant to cover activities aimed at reducing the health and social consequences of drug abuse, an integral part of the comprehensive approach to drug demand reduction, as recognized in the Declaration on the Guiding Principles of Drug Demand Reduction¹ adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations at its twentieth special session, to counter the world drug problem together, convened in 1998.

¹ General Assembly resolution S-20/3, annex.

In the present document, the following three principles are referred to as “harm reduction principles”:

(a) Reaching out to injecting drug users;

(b) Discouraging the sharing of contaminated injecting equipment by providing sterile injecting equipment and disinfectant materials;

(c) Providing substitution treatment.

These principles, which are part of the principles for preventing HIV infection among drug users compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO) in cooperation with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Council of Europe in 1998,² should not be viewed in isolation from overall national drug strategies or national acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) programmes. They are, however, valuable in guiding national policies and programmes as regards the specific goal of reducing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission among injecting drug users.

² WHO, Principles for Preventing HIV Infection among Drug Users (WHO Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen, 1998).