Civil Society Forum on Drugs

1. Civil Society Forum on Drugs Engagement with HDG and input on UNGASS 2016-related processes

2. Civil Society Forum • A platform for informal exchanges of views and information between the Commission and civil society organisations • 40 members / meeting once per year • Working groups: HDG, Standard implementation, and UNGASS • We offer grass-root experiences, implementation of major part of drug demand services • We seek involvement in drug policy dialogue • Engagement foreseen in EU Drug Action Plan • Welcome Lithuanian EU Presidency’s work on engagement

3. Our Concept on the Meaningful Involvement of CSF • at least one representative of the CSF should attend the meetings of the HDG with an observer status; • the CSF representative should have the possibility to make a comment in the end of the meetings on behalf of the Forum; • the CSF shall recommend the Presidency to put items on the agenda of the HDG meetings; • the EU Commission should provide funding to attend the HDG meetings and work with the Presidencies; • wider engagement with general civil society in Europe and other NGO’s working in the fields of drugs

4. Subject Areas for CSF Contribution to the HDG • Broadening Gap in the Funding and Support of Evidence-based Social and Public Health Services - In November we launched a survey among civil society organizations to assess the impact of the financial crisis on both drug use trends and funding for public health and social services (ongoing) • New Psychoactive Substances – some CSF members have launched specific programs, services & conducted research in this area (early 2014) • UNGASS – the WG 2 produced a paper with 6 recommendations to improve the EU’s contribution (ongoing) • Quality Standards Recommendations – helps member states to prioritize limited resources on evidence-based interventions (second half of 2014) • Law enforcement indicators – the EU drug strategy states that current indicators of supply reduction must be improved (second half of 2014)

5. Preliminary results of our survey on the impact of the crisis (40 responses) • In most member states NGOs perceive significant funding gap in prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and harm reduction • Funding of NGOs dropped, services were affected in many member states

7. UNGASS-related civil society position: Outcome documents • Civil society involvement • Harm reduction • Innovative approaches • Essential medicines • Impact of economic crisis in national drug policies • Inclusion of measurable indicators

8. UNGASS and High Level Segment: Content recommendations • Direct involvement of people who use drugs • Direct involvement of families and partners of drug users, children of drug users and former drug users • Meaningful engagement civil society • Broaden the measures used to assess the success of drug control policy

9. UNGASS and High Level Segment: Content recommendations • Acknowledge that the UN General Assembly target to reduce HIV infections among people who inject drugs by 50% by 2015 has not been achieved • Greater involvement of other UN agencies • Acknowledge the freedom of individual countries to experiment with innovative approaches

10. UNGASS and High Level Segment: Process recommendations • Joint work plan with the EU Presidencies • Structured channel civil society input EU position • Formalised civil society engagement at the High Level Segment • Civil society representatives on delegations • Civil society task force • Sharing EU example civil society engagement • Improved coordination between HDG and Vienna representatives

11. Our contacts • civilsocietyforum_coregroup@googlegroups.com • http://ec.europa.eu/justice/anti-drugs/civil-society/index_en.htm