Statement by Youth RISE at the CND Thematic Meeting Session on High Rates of HIV and Hepatitis C Transmission Associated with Drug Use
Vienna, October 1st, morning session
Good morning. I am speaking on behalf of Youth RISE, an international network of young advocates, including young people who use drugs and youth affected by punitive drug policies.
In many countries, UNAIDS has reported rising new HIV cases among 15-24-year-olds. While youth account for one quarter of people who inject drugs globally, studies consistently find that their relative risk of HIV and Hepatitis C is 1.5 times higher than that of adults.
Still, every day, young people who use drugs face barriers to accessing health and support. Such barriers are documented in the 2025 Youth Statement on the new Global AIDS Strategy and Future High-Level Political Commitments on the AIDS Response, created by organisations led by young key populations worldwide. This statement will be released on October 21st, and we invite you to read it.
As other speakers have highlighted, prevention, harm reduction, and treatment for drug use remain scarce for all age groups. The outlook for young people is even grimmer, with age and other legal restrictions leaving youth caught between criminalization and adult-centered services.
New generations of young people are starting to inject drugs, and they are being failed by the very systems meant to protect them.
Last year, Youth RISE, in collaboration with the International Network of People who Use Drugs and the Global Fund, conducted a study on youth-friendly health services. We found that a large proportion of participants in pilot needle exchange programs are young, highlighting the importance of scaling up youth-friendly services. However, many young people who use drugs face considerable barriers to accessing harm reduction and treatment, with access rates often lower than for adults. Requirements such as parental consent deter young people from seeking support, especially when drug use is criminalized.
Several international guidelines provide a blueprint for member states to implement drug policies that don’t undermine the development opportunities of new generations. Leading UN reports and experts emphasize that many drug-related harms are preventable with accessible services that fit people’s real needs—not punitive and criminalizing policies that foster stigma and push key groups away from life-saving care. And this can only happen when you include the perspectives of young people, particularly those with lived experience, in policymaking.
In last year’s Pact for the Future, Member States have pledged to protect the rights of all young people and include them in policy decisions. We urge Member States to scale up comprehensive and stigma-free peer-led services for youth, remove age barriers to health and harm reduction programs, and meaningfully involve youth in all policy decisions.
Youth is not a problem to be solved. They are experts in their own lives, ready to partner in building evidence-based programs that reduce inequality, improve wellbeing, respect autonomy, and save lives.
Thank you.