The list of topics we hope to explore at HR25 are listed below; they reflect the global rotation of the Harm Reduction International Conference, highlighting some of the priority issues for Latin America as we return to the region for the first time in over 25 years.

1. Global South perspectives and leadership
2. Moving from conflict to ‘drug peace’
3. Changing the narrative/reaching outside of the harm reduction bubble
4. Building Indigenous harm reduction responses
5. Impacts of the war on drugs on Indigenous communities, communities marginalised by race or ethnicity, women, sex workers, LGBTQIA+ communities
6. Climate intersections/planetary health/ecological harm reduction/impacts of the ‘war on drugs’ on the environment
7. Drug production and distribution – impacts, responses and ethics
8. Access to health services for people who use drugs in prison
9. Decarceration/prison abolition
10. Sex work and harm reduction
11. Decolonisation/white supremacy
12. Funding for harm reduction (examples of redirection of funding, domestic investment advocacy and positive examples, innovative financing/blockchain/private sector/other government budgets outside disease prevention)
13. Drug Consumption Rooms/Safer Injecting Facilities/Overdose Prevention Sites
14. Death penalty for drug offences
15. Person-centred, integrated harm reduction
16. Harm reduction as an ethic
17. LGBTQIA+ communities and harm reduction (inc. chemsex)
18. Traditional and/or medicinal use of drugs (inc. psychedelics)
19. New perspectives on mental health and harm reduction (inc. wellbeing of harm reduction workers)
20. Community mobilisation and organizing/community-led programmes
21. Stimulants (particular focus on cocaine)
22. Harm reduction in party settings, festivals and nightlife
23. New harm reduction approaches to alcohol and other legally regulated drugs
24. Drug checking – examples from Latin America versus global, emerging trends, identifying adulterants, toxic supply
25. Harm reduction and drug policy in conflict and post-conflict situations
26. Harm reduction/drug policy and social justice
27. Punitive drug policies and human rights - militarisation, police violence, prohibitionist government, forced treatment and other extreme responses
28. Reform efforts/strategies for effective advocacy/role of civil society in drug policy reform/engaging policymakers and stakeholders
29. Harm reduction innovations (inc. digital harm reduction, cognitive enhancers)
30. Harm reduction and health (inc. HIV, viral hepatitis)
31. Harm reduction and disability/neurodiversity
32. A feminist approach to harm reduction (inc. mothers and harm reduction, pregnancy and drug use, femicide, drug use and the menopause)
33. Research ethics and good practice

Abstract submission closed on 14 October 2024.

The programme of the Harm Reduction International Conference is mostly abstract-driven. This means that we ask you, our delegates, to submit your best work to be considered for inclusion in our programme. We will put out a call for abstracts in August that will detail the kind of topics that we're looking to focus on and then you have until the end of September to submit your abstract. In October and November, our committees (more on those below) work hard to select abstracts and to build sessions for inclusion in the final programme. 

Speakers in our Opening, Closing and three Plenary sessions are all invited. We canvas a large group of partners and allies to set thematic priorities and then seek out exemplary speakers on those themes.