Publications

This information is intended for use by pregnant and parenting people who use drugs, their loved ones, and their service providers. Our goal is to promote the overall health and well-being of pregnant people who use substances and their families. For many people, upon finding out they are pregnant, they may wonder about reducing or stopping their use. It is important to know that there are many steps that can be taken, related to substance use or not, to have a healthy pregnancy. Pregnant people and their families can use this information to understand their rights, access services, and find high-quality, evidence-based care. 

Scottish Drugs Forum was awarded Scottish Government funding to conduct baseline research with particular at-risk populations and frontline services to identify specific risks in terms of drug use and sexual health, treatment needs, information needs and what workers need to know in order to support these populations effectively. This would inform the development of information and training resources and programmes, ensuring that the workforce and service providers working with the three target groups are fully trained and equipped to support service users with their sexual health, blood borne viruses and harm reduction needs.

This new report by UNAIDS examines how the experience of tackling HIV can help inform and guide effective, efficient, people-centred and sustainable COVID-19 responses. This report focuses on three key issues: (1) how key lessons learned from the HIV response should inform COVID-19 responses; (2) how the HIV infrastructure is already driving COVID-19 responses and has the potential to catalyse accelerated progress through strategic action; and (3) how the COVID-19 response, informed by the history of responding to HIV, offers a historic opportunity to build a bridge to adaptable results-driven systems for health that work for people.

To help tackle how COVID-19 is upending young people’s lives, briefs under “My life” cover comprehensive sexuality education, risk communication with those young people left behind and girls’ empowerment, particularly as it relates to child marriage.

To help tackle how COVID-19 is upending young people’s lives, briefs under “My life” cover comprehensive sexuality education, risk communication with those young people left behind and girls’ empowerment, particularly as it relates to child marriage.

To help address the impacts of COVID-19 on young people’s health, including on their sexual and reproductive health and rights, there are two briefs under the umbrella of “My body”. The first is a set of frequently asked questions on COVID-19 and young people, co-authored with WHO, UNESCO and UNICE. This second brief is on ensuring sexual and reproductive health services are still accessible to young people.

This publication summarizes data, research, and policy work by UN Women’s Policy and Programme Division on the pandemic’s impact on women and girls, including the impact on extreme poverty, employment, health, unpaid care, and violence against women and girls. The publication also brings into focus the paucity of gender data and calls for greater investment and prioritization of data on the gendered effects of the crisis.

Rights in a Pandemic outlines 10 immediate areas for action for governments towards building effective, rights-based COVID-19 responses. These include taking proactive measures to ensure that people, particularly people in vulnerable groups, can access HIV treatment and prevention services, designating and supporting essential workers, including community-led organizations, and implementing measures to prevent and address gender-based violence. The report builds on Rights in the time of COVID-19, released by UNAIDS in March 2020, which urged countries to take a human rights approach in responding to COVID-19, in line with best practices from 40 years of responding to HIV.

The snapshot does not intend to be an analysis of issues for women and girls relating to COVID-19. Rather it is an account of the responses of courageous human rights workers from nine national human rights institutions in the Asia Pacific Region, who have highlighted some of the issues that women and girls are facing in their countries and how they, and their institutions, are responding to these issues. It is hoped that, by sharing these case studies, the challenges, tools and strategies for responding to, and supporting recovery from COVID-19, may also be shared.

UNAIDS calls on governments to live up to their commitment to develop nationally owned and led social protection systems for all, including floors; and scale up and progressively enhance coverage, adequacy and comprehensiveness, thereby improving the responsiveness and quality of interventions to address the needs and vulnerabilities of people living with HIV.