Dianova participates in the evaluation of the European Union Drug Strategy 2021-2025 and its Action Plan
A balanced approach to successfully reducing the risks and harms associated with drug use must promote and encourage the active and meaningful participation and involvement of civil society – Image from the EU Drugs Strategy 2021 – 2025, all rights reserved
By the editorial team – The Civil Society Forum on Drugs (CSFD) is an expert group of the European Commission established in 2007 based on the Commission’s Green Paper on the role of civil society in EU drug policy. Its purpose is to provide a broad platform for structured dialogue between the Commission and European civil society to support the formulation and implementation of drug policies through practical advice. The CSFD aligns with EU Drugs Strategy 2021-2025 and the EU Action Plan on Drugs for the period 2021-2025, both of which require the active and meaningful participation of civil society in the development and implementation of drug policies at the national, EU, and international levels. Its members comprise 45 civil society organizations from across Europe, representing diverse areas of drug policy as well as various perspectives within those areas.
In the framework of the ongoing evaluation of the EU Drugs Strategy 2021-2025 and the EU Drugs Action Plan 2021-2025, the European Commission has launched a Public Consultation to collect feedback from a broad range of stakeholders, including EU and non-EU citizens, academia, NGOs, the private sector, and public authorities, among others. The consultation aims to gather input on the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence, and EU added value of the Strategy and Action Plan for the period covered from 2021 until now.
Dianova International has contributed to the public consultation launched by the European Commission with the aim of identifying lessons learned and suggesting possible improvements and changes to the European Union’s drug policy framework.
Dianova has submitted a series of contributions to this public consultation, which remained open until Monday, August 26th, with the aim of assessing the impact of the European Union Drugs Strategy and its Action Plan for the period 2021-2025. These contributions, which have been agreed upon by the entities within our network, are also intended to influence the development of the forthcoming Community strategy.
To address drug and addiction issues, we need to integrate a children’s rights perspective, promote an intersectional and gender perspective, and support harm reduction strategies in all types of interventions.
In addition, Dianova International has placed particular emphasis on specific issues such as the need to integrate a child rights-based approach in the field of addiction, to continue to promote the implementation of an intersectional perspective with a particular focus on gender, and to ensure political support for harm reduction strategies across the continuum of care. This is crucial to ensure equitable access to resources and to democratize access to these approaches and specific resources across Europe, as their implementation is currently very uneven.
We have also highlighted the importance of balancing demand and supply reduction approaches, both in terms of economic investment to support interventions and in terms of gathering evidence to demonstrate which interventions are most effective and have a positive impact on communities and their rights.
Dianova International’s participation in this European Union consultation reflects our commitment to the active involvement of civil society in the formulation of drug policies at the European level. Civil society has a crucial role to play in ensuring that drug policies are more inclusive, equitable and socially just. It is essential that the voices of affected communities and the organizations that work directly with them are heard and taken into account in order to ensure a public health, human rights and social justice approach to drug-related issues and their impact on communities.
