AIDS and drug users: for a new approach based on health and human rights
In cooperation with the CNDH, the Moroccan Association against AIDS (ALCS) held on the 9th of October 2014, at the Council in Rabat, a national meeting to advocate for a new approach to deal with drug users based on health and human rights, to help reduce the risks of AIDS and protect human rights.
The representatives of the main civil society and human rights associations, security and justice bodies, and national institutions gathered in this national meeting to advocate for a plan of action to help implement the national strategy for human rights and AIDS, especially among drug users.
Speaking in the opening session of the meeting, Mohamed Essabbar, CNDH secretary General, highlighted the fact the Moroccan constitution provides for the right to health and healthcare and decriminalizes discrimination and stigmatization. These two human rights violations must be totally eliminated, he said.
Stigma and discrimination against marginalized and vulnerable groups, including drug users, and the implementation of the right to health were the main reasons behind the national strategy for human rights and AIDS, put forward by Ministry of Health, in cooperation with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, to which the CNDH effectively contributed.
Three working sessions were scheduled for this meeting, held with the support of Open Society: human right and drug users’ right to health, the risk reducing policy for drug users and human rights in the world, and violations of drug users’ human rights.