- Written by: Marialba Quesada
Exploring and learning from the environment is part of our lives from an early age. We continue this path of human formation by learning from the people, words, objects and ideas that surround us, until we begin to question violent actions that are normalized in the world, such as why we destroy forests and attack nature in multiple ways, or why certain people can cross a border and others cannot. In this brief article, we will focus on the second case and reflect on the importance of valuing cultural interactions.
During the YouthRISE Annual Strategy Meeting (ASM) 2023 held in Dublin, Ireland, the team experienced constant difficulties in supporting IWG members to apply for their visa, as well as appealing denied applications. A similar situation arose during the Commission on Drugs and Narcotics (CND) 2023, held in Vienna, Austria. Despite being unrelated events, it was possible to find a pattern of visa refusals in the African and Asian regions.
This situation led the YouthRISE team to reflect on the need to build harm reduction proposals with decolonial approaches, which not only acknowledge the racist history by which the global War on Drugs has been built, but also prioritize involving and supporting activists and harm reduction practitioners to ensure their presence at regional and global events.
The plurality of realities and experiences enriches any conversation, especially when it is intended to have an impact on human rights issues. This simple fact makes it a vital characteristic for the congruence of global projects that seek to change the lives of different groups of people.