• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Drug Policy and Law
  • Harm Reduction
  • Activism

Drugreporter

News and Films from the Frontline of the War on Drugs

  • News
  • Café
  • Videos
  • About Us
  • EN
    • HU
    • RU

HCLU in action: Stop the Global War on Drugs!

March 13, 2009 | Author: Péter Sárosi

Tweet

A demonstration and press conference in Vienna, March 11, 2009

On Wednesday morning we organized a demonstration at the entrance of the Vienna International Centre, the building where the UN high level meeting on drugs was held. Government delegates gathered here from March 11 to 12 to discuss the effectiveness of current drug control policies and to adopt a new Political Declaration on drugs. Despite the tremendous evidence on the failure and uninintended consequences of the global drug war, it was an open secret even before the meeting that governments will not break with the old "tough on drugs" approach. The draft text of the declaration did not even mention harm reduction, the most effective tool to reduce drug related deaths and disease! As we expected, the governments made a wrong decision and signed a declaration that in many ways simply repeated the irrealistic and harmful slogans of the 1998 document (read more about what happened at the official meeting here). 

However, we, drug reform activists did not miss this opportunity to remind decision makers and the general public that the global drug control regime does not work and we need a new drug policy based on human rights and harm reduction.

We think it was a great success: all delegates and journalists who came to the meeting had to watch our banners: "Stop the Global War on Drugs", "Harm Reducton Saves Lives" and "Prohibition Does Not Work". We exhibited the best posters of our Unintended Consequences contest, the police to let the banners and posters stay for 2 days, so everybody who entered the building could see our message. We thank for all the enthusiastic activists who contributed to this event, especially those from INPUD, ENCOD and Youth Rise, who had their own banners and standed in the cages prepared by us to symbolize the isolation and exclusion of people who use illicit drugs!

At 9 AM we organized an open air press conference, the speakers (Balázs Dénes from HCLU, Matthew Southwell from INPUD, Frederik Polak from ENCOD and Kris Krane from the Students for Sensible Drug Policy) pointed out that there is a huge gap between reality and UN targets in the field of drug policy. All speakers gave interviews from inside the cages. HCLU – by favour of an OSI grant – provided scholarships for European journalists to attend and report the UN high level meeting – they were very active at press conferences and helped us to make the UN more transparent and accountable (read one of the early reports by Toby Green posted on The Independent World).

We installed some containers with symbolic urine samples on podiums to show delegates the absurdity of the war on drugs. We also distributed fake banknotes (US dollars) with the picture of Mr. Costa and a message in the name of In Memoriam Al Capone Trust, the international network of criminals, who congratulated the governments to keep drugs illegal, thus creating a huge tax-free income for them. 

Watch the photo report from the demo (our videos are coming soon!):


Balázs Dénes, the head of HCLU and Freredik Polak from ENCOD are speaking at the press conference – from cages


In many countries drug offenders still can face the gallow: we must abolish death penalty!







Government delegates could not sneak in the building without being offered with our flyers


Tamas Varga, an HCLU activist dressed like a mafioso is distributing fake-banknotes with Costa's head


"United Nations of Prohibition"


"In Memoriam Al Capone Trust"


Governments need our urine? – here they got it…


INPUD activist calling for drug war peace – he is not collateral damage but a human being


This girl is not dancing in the cage – but protesting against prohibition

Peace demonstrators


Forced eradication of drug crops destroys livelihoods


Youth can't wait ten more years…


Young people demand harm reduction – now!


Please stop here and rethink drug policies


INPUD activists – drug users made their voice heard by government delegates


Before the press conference started

Interview from the cage

 


Press conference in cages – Kris Krane from SSDP on the left


Balázs Dénes addresses the journalists


Frederik Polak speaks to journalists

Matthew Southwell speaks at the press conference


I am not a criminal: do you think I am really that dangerous?


Dimitri Mugianis from INPUD


What makes them different? Only the law…

Even the children from kindergarden know: drug users are not criminals

 

 

Filed Under: Articles Topics: Drug Policy and Law, Harm Reduction, UN Drug policy, US Drug Policy

Access to this article is free - but to produce articles and videos is not. Drugreporter is a non-profit website that needs your support to provide you with high quality contents.

Become a supporter and make a donation of 5 $ today!

Related articles:

The 66th CND Sessions

March 28, 2023 - István Gábor Takács

LIFE UNDER OCCUPATION – Part II. Under the power of the Dementors

March 27, 2023 - Igor Kuzmenko

LIFE UNDER OCCUPATION – Part I. The day that changed our lives

March 20, 2023 - Igor Kuzmenko

Related videos:

The 66th CND Sessions

March 28, 2023 - István Gábor Takács

Support Igor Kuzmenko – a Ukrainian Video Reporter Documenting Harm Reduction during the War!

March 20, 2023 - István Gábor Takács

Fixpunkt Berlin: Supporting People Who Use Drugs in Berlin 

March 8, 2023 - Péter Sárosi

You can browse our topics here:

Activism COVID-19 Criminalisation Dose of Science Drug Consumption Rooms Drug Policy and Law European Drug Policy Harm Reduction Hepatitis HIV/AIDS Marijuana Policies Medical Marijuana Needle and syringe programs New Psychoactive Substances Opiate Substitution Overdose Prevention Psychedelic Medicines Regulation and Control Russian Drug Policy Sex Work United Nations Drug Policy US Drug Policy

Primary Sidebar

BECOME A SUPPORTER OF DRUGREPORTER! INVEST THE PRICE OF A COFFEE MONTHLY AND MAKE SURE DRUGREPORTER KEEPS RUNNING!

Subscribe to the Newsletter!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Search

Drugreporter Video Database

Hundreds of videos on drug policy, harm reduction and human rights for streaming and download, also on a world map!

DRUGREPORTER NEWS

Monthly drug policy news from around the world

Drugreporter café

In our new online video show, we regularly discuss new developments in the world of drug policy with professionals, activists and decision makers. You can also listen to the Drugreporter Café in Podcast format on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

COVID-19 Harm Reduction Update

On this info page Drugreporter provides regular updates about resources and news on how harm reduction service providers respond to the COVID-19 Epidemic.

Drugreporter Video Advocacy Network

Browse videos produced by members of our Drugreporter Video Advocacy Network, from all around the world!

DRUG USERS NEWS

Russian language videos on drug policy, harm reduction and human rights.

Our award winning animated documentary movie is based on the original audio recording of Kostya Proletarsky, a drug user and HIV activist who died as a result of mistreatment and torture at a Russian prison. Festival appearances, news and resources are available here!

Footer

Rights Reporter Foundation
Hungary, 1032 Budapest
San Marco Street 70.
Email: rightsreporter@rightsreporter.net

Search

Our other websites:

The Rights Reporter Foundation

The Autocracy Analyst

Room for Change Campaign

Room in the 8th District Campaign

A Day in the Life movie website

Drugreporter