The International Harm Reduction Development Program (IHRD), part of the Open Society Institute’s Public Health Program, works to reduce HIV and other harms related to injecting drug use and to press for policies that reduce stigmatization of illicit drug users and protect their human rights. Since 1995 IHRD has supported more than 200 programs in Central and Eastern Europe and Asia, and bases its activities on the philosophy that people unable or unwilling to abstain from drug use can make positive changes to protect their health and the health of others. Since 2001, IHRD has prioritized advocacy to expand availability and quality of needle exchange, drug dependence treatment, and treatment for HIV; to reform discriminatory policies and practices; and to increase the participation of people who use drugs and those living with HIV in shaping policies that affect their lives.
Harm reduction is a pragmatic and humanistic approach to diminishing the individual and social harms associated with drug use, especially the risk of HIV infection. It seeks to lessen the problems associated with drug use through methodologies that safeguard the dignity, humanity and human rights of people who use drugs.