In wide-ranging opening remarks to the current session of the
Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, the Executive Director
of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Yury Fedotov placed
HIV and drug use at the heart of the global agenda. “HIV
transmission through injecting drug use continues to be one of
the main unresolved challenges of the international community.
Widespread stigma, discrimination and lack of access to
evidence-informed HIV services are among the key challenges,” he
said. Addressing the gathering of more than 1 000
representatives of Member States and civil society, he suggested
that despite “notable progress” in increasing access to HIV
services for people who inject drugs, there is still a long way
to go. In an apparent nod to the post-2015 development agenda Mr
Fedotov put the challenge of the epidemic within the context of
a health and rights-based prism: “[H]uman rights and public
health considerations must be at the core of the international
response to drug use and HIV,” he mainta