Is sex work always a rape? Can women give their consent to do sex work? Can we speak about harm reduction among sex workers like among drug users?

Dr Alex Wodak is the Director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at St Vincent’s Hospital. He was also President of the International Harm Reduction Association for several years, he is the author (with Ron Owen) of “Drug Prohibition: a call for change” published by UNSW Press.

Annette Verster works for the HIV/AIDS Department of the World Health Organization in Geneva, she coordinates all activities related to HIV prevention. She speaks about the conclusions of an investigation on prisons and harm reduction which WHO commissioned recently.

Stijn Goossens, the head of the International Network of People Who Use Drugs (www.inpud.org) is speaking about Trek Uw Plant, an interesting social experiment in the city of Antwerp, Belgium.

Eberhard Schatz is the head of an Amsterdam-based harm reduction NGO, AMOC, which operates a drop-in and consumption room for injecting drug users with foreign nationality. According to the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction, consumption rooms can successfully reduce drug related harms, especially drug overdoses and HIV infections.

Robyn Few is the Director of SWOP-USA, and co-founder of the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, held on December 17th each year. SWOP helps sex workers and their organizations organize to protect their rights and fight against stigmatization and discrimination.

Mike Trace is currently the Co-Director of the Beckley Foundation Drug Policy Programme and Chief Executive at RAPT (Rehabilitation of Addicted Prisoners Trust), one of the UK’s foremost providers of drug addiction treatment.

Ethan Nadelmann is the executive director of the largest drug policy reform organization in the U.S., the Drug Policy Alliance (www.drugpolicy.org ). Earlier he was a professor at the Princeton University.

Mauro is a well-known Italian AIDS activist who previously worked as a chair of GNP+, an advocate group, and recently works for the International Harm Reduction Development Program of the Open Society Institute.

Anya Sarang is a founding member of the Russian Harm Reduction Network – an organization promoting harm reduction in the Russian Federation..