The international strategy of criminalising the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and consumption of certain psychoactive substances has failed to achieve a ‘drug-free world’. Women are negatively and disproportionally affected by this policy approach.
Still, we think, there is a need to address the lack of attention on the experience of women, trans and gender-diverse people and the challenges accessing appropriate services, the stigmatisation and marginalisation resulting from engagement in illegal drug markets, as well as the violence they are exposed to.

For a more inclusive and fair world, for us all.
#IWD2021

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A couple of reads you might find interesting:
The Impact of Global Drug Policy on Women: shifting the Needle [open access]
Read here

2021 Report on gender equality in the EU
The commission has published its report, showing how the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women, as the pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities in almost all areas of life.
Read here

Gender Equality Strategy Monitoring Portal [a resource]
The Commission will launch today this Monitoring Portal, to better track progress in the Member States.
Read here

On the A-gender: Community monitoring tool for gender-responsive harm reduction services for women who use drugs
The On the A-Gender: Community Monitoring Tool for Gender-Responsive Harm Reduction Services for Women who use Drugs aims to be a resource for community advocates to begin documenting, evidencing, and addressing the unacknowledged and unaddressed needs of women who use drugs. By doing so, community advocates can begin to identify areas and locales where gender-responsive services are severely lacking or identify services and programmes that can provide examples of good practice and be scaled up. The tool acknowledges the diversity and intersectionality of women who use drugs — including sex workers, lesbian and transwomen.
Read here

The Barcelona Declaration
In 2019, in February more than 40 womxn from Europe and Central Asia met in Barcelona to work together on intersectional feminism, drug policy, harm reduction and human rights, where the Barcelona Declaration was initiated.
Read here

The International Alliance of Women who Use Drugs
Read here