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June 26 is the International Day against Drug Use and Illicit Trafficking.

The protection of the rights of people who use drugs is one of the important directions of the activity of HCA Vanadzor.

To this end, the Organization carries out monitoring, studies as well as analyses and puts forward suggestions.

As is shown by the findings of the study conducted by HCA Vanadzor, people who use drugs now face different health, legal and social problems. There is a strong discriminatory attitude towards these people, which results in periodic violations of their rights.

In accordance with the Findings of the 2017 HCAV Monitoring of Mass Media Publications on Drug Users, Drug Trafficking and other Drug-related Issues, the number of publications related to this theme decreased in comparison with 2015 and 2016, which has a direct link to the number of the publications by the RA Police as the media generally disseminate the Police publications.

From 2015 to 2017, the publications contributing to the formation of a negative attitude towards people using drugs or their problems were prevailing. Some of them contain stereotypical words such as  “drug addict” or “drug addiction”.

Those publications also contain information on possible violations of human rights. The main rights that are violated are the right to freedom from discrimination, the right to a fair trial, the right to protection of personal data, the right to protection of health and the right to freedom from torture.

The publications contributing to the deepening of the stigma towards people using drugs and their problems still hold a consistent position. Therefore, the policy aimed at isolating people using drugs remains.

In 2017, HCA Vanadzor published an animation clip, which shows what the discriminatory attitude of society towards people using drugs may lead to and how it can affect their lives.