Read the full speech here
Speech delivered at the
Consultation on Police and HIV
Industrieele Groote Club (IGC), Dam 27, Amsterdam
4 October 2014
By
Michel Kazatchkine
UN Special Envoy on AIDS for Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Dear colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to warmly welcome you to this consultation on Police and HIV.
I would like to thank you for your commitment to joining the fight against HIV and congratulate you, the organizers, and the drafters of the “Amsterdam statement on police partnerships for harm reduction” for your wisdom and your courage.
Because, it takes wisdom and courage to question and challenge, as you do, established ways of working.
It takes wisdom and courage to question whether policing practices with regard to socially-marginalized groups, as implemented in so many parts of the world, are the right course of action to take, from a public health perspective.
It takes wisdom and courage to “think differently” and to ask how best to “protect and serve” in legal and policy environments that in many parts of the world are discriminatory, aggressive to the most vulnerable, including people who use drugs and sex workers. Today, we will be hearing many examples of how police can do things differently and more effectively, even within adverse environments.
It takes wisdom and courage to base what you do on evidence, rather than on tradition.
Read the full Michel Kazatchkine speech at the Consultation on Police and HIV