Legal Services and Harm Reduction

OSI's Law and Health Initiative (LAHI) hosted this meeting to coincide with the International Harm Reduction Conference held the same week. The meeting was designed to bring together legal professionals who work with drug users in a variety of different capacities: as legal representatives, advocates, trainers, human rights documentarians, and funders. The objectives of the meeting were to:

• Identify existing legal resources that are available to drug users for both advocacy and representation;
• Explore avenues for increasing the capacity of individual practitioners and organizations to broaden both the scope of their work and the number of clients they serve;
• Strengthen networking and communication between legal professionals working on issues impacting drug users around the world; and
• Conduct a needs assessment to determine how best researchers and funders can assist in capacity development for legal service projects.

Forty-eight legal professionals from thirteen countries, including Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Hungary, United States, and Canada attended the two-day meeting. It was coordinated by LAHI in conjunction with the Open Society Institute Fund–Lithuania, and LAHI’s local partner, the Social AIDS Committee, a Warsaw-based NGO. The meeting was conducted in both Russian and English.

Leading litigators from the Czech Republic and Russia attended the meeting and delivered major presentations. Hana Gajdosikova, an attorney with the Center for Addictology at Carles University in Prague, delivered the keynote address on the first day, entitled: “Why is it important to provide legal services to drug users?” She began her speech by explaining that providing legal services to drug users is just as important to improving overall health outcomes as medical care. She quoted from the Constitution of the World Health Organization: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

Ksenia Kostromina, a celebrated criminal attorney from Russia, spoke on the second day, about the landmark case she brought before the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of a drug user who was illegally detained and held without access to essential medical care. Meeting participants also heard from the father of the plaintiff in that case.

On the first day of the meeting, participants engaged in a mapping exercise to identify the kinds of services available to drug users in their respective regions. Lawyers from Ukraine, Russia, Poland, and Kyrgystan shared their experiences with successful advocacy efforts on behalf of people who use drugs and those in treatment programs. Participants broke into four groups to discuss how to involve law students in legal service provision, issues facing women drug users, bringing test case litigation, and transforming work from service to advocacy. On the second day, participants shared their conclusions and recommendations from the day before, and heard a panel discussion on involving people who use drugs in program design and service provision. The meeting ended with a discussion about fundraising strategies beyond OSI.

The meeting agenda and participant list are available at http://health.osf.lt/en/seminars/. A report on the meeting, including the results of a pre-meeting questionnaire and recommendations for funders, legal professionals, and advocacy organizations is available for download below. For more information, please contact Jonathan Cohen at jcohen@sorosny.org.

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