dr nicholas thomson nossal institute for global health 6th haarp consultation and coordination...
TRANSCRIPT
Arresting HIV: The Importance of Law Enforcement and Harm
Reduction Program PartnershipsDr Nicholas Thomson
Nossal Institute for Global Health
6th HAARP Consultation and Coordination Forum, Siem Reap, April 2012
What does this mean in the context of harm reduction?
How do we actually do it?
What are some of the factors that “enhance the enabling environment”?
Enhancing the enabling environment?
We understand the importance of an enabling legal and policy environments in the context of drug use and HIV……….(HAARP’s Legal and Policy Review)
The same discussion is being had for all HIV prevention among Key Affected Populations
UNESCAP High level meeting, Universal Access, UNDP Global Commission on the Law and HIV
National and Global Policy Debates and Civil Society issues based movements
Enabling the Legal and Policy Environment
What else are critical components of the enabling environment?
Best practice, evidenced-based comprehensive programs ultimately funded by the state
But its only part of the “enabling environment” equation
It’s the intersection of law enforcement and HIV programs and the people they work with that ultimately dictates how “enabling” the enabling environment is
But to create an enabling environment……..
We haven’t been able to influence law enforcement agencies : why not?
How can we work with police to reinvigorate their ability to become significantly better harm reduction program supporters and indeed public health actors?
Understanding the dynamics between law enforcement and HIV programs
Multiple (and substantiated) reports of rights violations
Really, really high rates of lifetime history of arrest, incarceration, re-arrest and further incarceration of drug users and sex workers
How is our perception shaped?
Action orientated; reactive rather than proactive
Achievement measured according to arrests=promotion
Extension of conservative state approaches Discouraging of innovation and creativity Police see a “war on drugs” as their national
security duty
How do we understand police culture?
How many of us have tried working with police on a regular and ongoing manner?
How many of us have really tried to understand the operational culture of policing?
How do we create an enabling environment where the police are fully engaged in their role in HIV prevention?
There must be a better way?
We have started a series of research projects to understand the dynamics of the enabling environment
UNESCAP Best Practice
Law Enforcement and Harm Reduction Research Network
Understanding the factors that create an enabling environment
Examined enabling environments across the Asia Pacific
Case studies included if actions taken by either civil society, government or police (in isolation or separately) had contributed to a “BETTER ENABLING ENVIRONMENT”
Measured by: decreasing prevalence of HIV risk behaviour, uptake in service delivery
Enabling environment exploration
Community mobilisation in AVAHAN projects in India
Efforts to enhance communication between police and drug user networks in Indonesia
Significant engagement between the Blue Diamond Society in Nepal with the police
Sex worker led interventions with police in Thailand (SWING) and Fiji
Human rights policing efforts in Indonesia
Harm reduction training curriculum in Cambodia, Malaysia and Yunnan
Some examples
Evidence of effectiveness? Less brutality experienced by sex workers in
Fiji leading to increase condom use Female sex workers reform police practices in
southern India Workplace policies on HIV in the police
department in Nagaland
But how can we scale up LE and HIV program partnerships?
And how can we monitor the implementation and success?
1) The Importance of LEADERSHIP
Leadership from both police and civil society
We need people who can meet regularly and represent the views of their organisations.
Respectful and collaborative leadership
What are the key factors
2) Importance of growing of Civil Society Networks
Case examples highlight that building civil society networks and their ability to collectively represent themselves made significant impacts on police practices towards them
The role of paralegal services, rights documentation etc
Civil Society
3) The importance of police operational, educational and cultural reform
Development of harm reduction and HIV prevention curriculum (role of police)
Without police reform progress difficult
Police need to feel supported in their reform efforts
Police Reform
4) The Importance of formal and informal communication channels between police and civil society and HIV programs
National and local task forces Key actors from both sectors knowing each
other
Communication
5) Addressing Structural Drivers
Violence, intimidation Employment and education Policy and practices Scaled up programs Program design that specifically prioritises a
Law Enforcement Advocacy and Partnership plan
Addressing the Structural Drivers
6) The need for monitoring and evaluation of the enabling environment
What are the variable of interest? Decrease incidence of police harassment Increase in service uptake
Monitoring and Evaluation
The role of harm reduction programs on policing practices
Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia
What have we found????
Law enforcement and harm reduction research network
Principles of police and harm reduction programs The involvement of law enforcement is critical to the
success of harm reduction programs at all levels – regional, national and local.
There is a pressing need for law enforcement agencies and authorities to share ownership of harm reduction.
Police must be engaged early by harm reduction programs; not as a subsidiary but as a core partner.
There need to be multi-sectoral structures among all key agencies involved at all levels, so that working relationships can be established and maintained.
Have a long history going back to original design of Asia HIV/AIDS Regional Project (ARHP)
Police trainings Sustained involvement: Takes time Working with Yunnan Police Academy (almost
15 year relationship HAARP cross border work pioneering Law
Enforcement and Public Health cooperation cross border…………We need to document lessons!!
The Role of HAARP
Communication??????
“We heard about the program from our bosses but we were never approached by anyone running the program to inform us about how it would work”
Program design, police liaison officers?
Thank You Law Enforcement & Harm Reduction Network
(LEAHRN) www.leahrn.org
Special Edition of the International Harm Reduction journal and dissemination events in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam
Policing and Public Health, LEPH 2012: The First International Conference on the Intersection of Law Enforcement and Public Health, Melbourne November 11-14, 2012 "Working Together, sharing success"www.Policing-and-Public-Health.com
For more information on our growing Law Enforcement and Public Health Program
Email: [email protected]
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