Notable updates include:

• HR in Prison practical toolbox building on previous years’ activities and existing guidelines and good practices
• Civil Society Involvement (CSI) Case Studies building on a tool developed as part of the CSFD Project, including quality standards and principles for meaningful CSI. Focus groups and interviews in four different countries/cities to assess the level and quality of CSI will be arranged.
• Establish an advocacy network of HR allies (mayors, MEPs, national MPs, national drug coordinators and journalists) to support our advocacy activities, with the support of the UNITE Network of MPs.

The meeting was grouped by sessions:

• ‘Monitoring 2023’ session covered the framework for the C-EHRN Monitoring 2023 as well as monitoring developments and modifications. This includes the addition of new FPs, bringing the number to 43. Modifications include for HR Essentials and Hepatitis C, which will remain collected via a survey; for the data collection of New Drug Trends; and the new addition of city reports; as well as the framework for the report on the mental health of harm reduction staff (FPs have been contacted for interviews).
• ‘City Reports’ sessions presented the basic framework and content of the city reports and selection criteria for 5 pilot cities for 2023; as well as the aim of the reports: advocacy, data collection and capacity building. Volunteer cities include: Warsaw, Luxembourg, London, Cracow, Lille, Dublin, Amsterdam, Athens and Rome.
• Monitoring and Advocacy sessions focused on the needs of FPs to support / improve advocacy and how C-EHRN has been using the Monitoring results for advocacy.
• FGDs capacity building and New Drug Trends 2023 sessions introduced the ‘Monitoring New Drug Trends in 2023’ plan – a newly introduced section of the survey – as well as ran focus groups following the FP decision in Athens in 2022 to collect data on this topic via Focus Group Discussions (FGD) to ensure more quality and reliability of data. These sessions included  capacity building on how to run an FGD, which several FPs are currently organising.

The next Expert and Member Meeting takes place in Budapest on 4 – 5 December.