12th National Congress on STIs/HIV/AIDS

Each year close to World AIDS Day (1 December), a national conference on issues related to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV are held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Recognising the need to advocate for increased resources and the scale up of harm reduction activities, HARP was instrumental in organising a panel discussion at the 12th National Congress on STIs/HIV/AIDS that focussed on the broader policy discussion in the Netherlands, entitled ‘Scaling Up from a Harm Reduction Perspective’.

The workshop, which took place on 1 December 2008, was chaired by Mrs. Catherine Hodgkin of the Royal Tropical Institute and included the following panel members:

• Mrs Kathleen Ferrier, Member of the Dutch Parliament (Christian Democrats, CDA)
• Mrs Sophie in 't Veld, Member of the European Parliament (Liberal Democrats, D’66)
• Mr Janhuib Blans, Public Health Consultant & Science Writer
• Dr Chiel van Brussel, medical doctor at Municipal Health Services of Amsterdam (GGD)
• Dr Joost van der Meer, Executive Director, AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW)