How to improve law enforcement knowledge about HIV and to work with drug users and sex workers: experiences from Kyrgyzstan

Aleksandr Zelichenko,Director of Public Fund Central-Asian Drug Policy Center,Coordinator CADAP-5, Police Colonel (ret.), PhD

Background

• HIV prevalence among IDUs is 15% (50x national average)

• Supportive legal environment

• Syringe sales

• Syringe possession

• Decriminalization of drug use

• Small-scale possession of drugs are decriminalized

• Methadone

• Services in prison

New Attitude

“Harm reduction cannot and will not work without the active participation of police”

“Police can be the best friend or the worst enemy of harm reduction”

Instruction 417: Cooperation between police and harm reduction

programs

Police Training

• Cooperation across the board is key to success

• Trainings initiated by AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW)

• First time in Kyrgyzstan that such diverse groups directly addressed a police audience

• 2010: incorporated training into all police stations across the country

Impact

Attitude change in police resulted from training

• More likely to support informing risk groups about HIV/AIDS prevention

• Over half viewed syringe access favorably• 5/6 unsupportive of detaining IDUs to improve public health • 44% agreed that police should refer drug users to public

health services (only 20% reported doing so)• More open to networking and improving relations with

NGOs

Clean Zone

•For people who have passed through the “Atlantis” and are trying to stay off drugs and alcohol•Works with 11 prisons •More than 40 clients now with capacity for 100•Referred to as clients or patients, not inmates•Need donor support to extend females

English (http://www.leahrn.org/) and Russian (http://www.leahrn.ru/)