Rome Consensus 2.0

The Rome Consensus for Humanitarian Drug Policy was created in 2005 and developed as a partnership between the Italian Red Cross (ItRC), the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) and the Villa Maraini Foundation (VMF). This initiative was established to address the specific dimensions of drug problem based on the existing knowledge and best practices of the past 40 years. The aim was to promote, within the International Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies a health-based approach to drug related suffering, and to prompt humanitarian action in this area. The Rome Consensus was signed by 121 Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies worldwide. Our goal, now, is to re-launch it as The Rome Consensus 2.0, starting from what we have done and learned so far: the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies needs partners in humanity, especially in this stigmatized field, in order to brighten an international debate on how to tackle the drugs problems and how to respond to the needs of the most vulnerable people. The new declaration seeks to build upon the first Consensus, broadening it out for new signatories from around the world, and providing a reference model for best practices on humanitarian drug policy for the coming decades. Establishing a wider alliance among activists, professionals, beneficiaries and all the NGOs working in the field, is the natural development of this initiatives. Partnerships reinforce the Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies’ mission, facilitate access at the community level, and introduce new and more effective ways of working to serve humanity. The sense of the humanitarian policy action aims to address the drug problems at all levels by giving emphasis to a humane attitude in support of people with drug disorders. We mainly focus our action for those who are struggling with their sickness everyday, to those persons who live a miserable life because they are discriminated, tortured, deprived of any health and social support, deprived of their rights and dignity. The primary objective of humanitarian aid and approach is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity. We are mostly focused on the urgency to decrease the harm, right now, for people and communities affected by addictions. http://romeconsensus.com