Oral Statement of the Harm Reduction International and Italian Association of Democratic Lawyers, Itaca Association and Antigone

Association To the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women on the Sixth Periodic Report of the Italian Government by Barbara Spinelli July 11th 2011, 49th CEDAW session Thank you Madam Chair, I am speaking on behalf of Harm Reduction International and Italian Association of Democratic Lawyers, Itaca and Antigone Associations, that submitted a joint shadow report on drug dependence, HIV/AIDS and the criminal justice system. I would highlight three main critical issues: 1. In relation to Committees Question 26 we would like to highlight that no systematic and comparable data are available on HIV prevalence amongst women drug users either in society or in prisons. 2. There is a high prevalence of petty drug offending women in prison in proportion to their male counter partners. The number of women who are drug dependent in prison has almost doubled since 2006, representing 17.5% of women prisoners. Use of alternative measures for women with petty drug offending is very low and almost non-existent further adding up overcrowding in the Italian penal system. 3. Women who use drug and are placed in the prisons have no access to gender specific harm reductions services as male prisoners do. Even more, no harm reduction services are available in womens prisons. 4. No systematic and comparable data is available on the types of treatment women drug users living with HIV get in the placers of incarceration. Madam Chair, members of the Committee, thank you. I look forward to answer your questions.