HRW criticises China for depriving drug users of HIV treatment

A leading rights watchdog has lashed out at Chinese police and public security forces for "driving" drug users away from community-based prevention services and denying them access to HIV treatment.     

The 43-page report released by Human Rights Watch today undermines China's response to HIV epidemic.     

"The government has expanded prevention and treatment programmes for drug users," said Joe Amon, HIV/AIDS programme director at Human Rights Watch. "But at the same time, the police are detaining drug users trying to access these services, and putting drug users in so-called 'drug rehabilitation centers' where they are provided no drug dependency treatment and no HIV prevention or treatment services."    

According to official government reports, China has 3 mn to 6 mn drug users, and nearly half of all recent HIV transmission has been associated with drug use. Since 2000, the Chinese government has set up more than 500 methadone treatment clinics, with the capacity to treat 100,000 drug users.     

But simultaneously, Human Rights Watch said, the government has increasingly put drug users in mandatory rehabilitation centers, which provide no effective drug dependency treatment.

As of 2007, approximately 700 mandatory drug detoxification and 165 "re-education through labour" (RTL) centers housed at least 340,000 drug users in China, it added, stressing that sentences to such facilities typically range from one to three years.     

Human Rights Watch found that the detoxification and RTL centers subjected drug users to abusive, inhuman, and degrading treatment. The centers not only fail to provide HIV prevention and treatment to drug users, but also facilitated its spread.