UNAIDS sat down with Anton Basenko, Executive Director of International Network for People who Use Drugs (INPUD) during the latest coordinating board meeting where Member States and partners discussed how people who inject drugs are disproportionately impacted by the HIV epidemic worldwide. 

In 2024, HIV prevalence among people who inject drugs reported was ten times higher than for the rest of the adult (15–49 years) population and people who inject drugs were estimated to be 34 times more likely to contract HIV than the general adult population. 

Q: How did you become an activist and advocate? 

A: I began using drugs as a teenager and started injecting when I was 16. Like millions of people around the world, I spent years avoiding healthcare not because I did not need it, but because healthcare did not feel safe.  

In 2002, Ukraine started to scale up the limited offer of harm reduction services. I did not go there because someone convinced me to seek treatment. I went to a drop-in centre run by Club Eney because I needed sterile injecting equipment. What I found there was much more than syringes. After almost 10 years of spending days looking for money, avoiding the police and buying drugs, I was in awe of the peer-led, peer-run place and realized, 'People care about me.' 

I had lost many friends and suffered many overdoses and lost my job so this outreach was like a miracle. That is where later, in 2023, I found out I was HIV+ and had Hepatitis C and needed treatment. I also qualified for opioid agonist therapy (OAT), which is another miracle. They were running a pilot programme at the time. Within months I transformed and regained confidence. So much so that when it was time to validate the pilot programme, I was asked to testify at the Ministry of Health Public Hearings. Wearing a tie and speaking about my experience, I overheard people from the opponents of the OAT group say afterwards, 'His outfit is too expensive and he looks too clean to be a real drug user,' which made me think that OAT definitely works and I clearly had convinced people from all sides during the meeting. 

Q: When is it that you really pushed for harm reduction services? 

A: In 2005, I went to the OAT site at the Kyiv Narcological Dispensary to get my daily dose of medicine and saw that the door was closed. I was in total shock and I felt all my hopes disappear. The majority of us were so afraid of withdrawal symptoms that we relapsed. Ukraine was in the midst of rolling out harm reduction and there had been a backlog. I was an emotional train wreck. Thank goodness the centre called us back a month and half later and I was able to get back on the medicine. It took me six months to get back on track. That experience taught me that policies are not written in isolation. They determine whether people live or die. They determine whether services remain open or disappear. And they determine whether communities are treated as partners—or as problems. Today, more than twenty years later, that lesson remains just as relevant. 

Q: Was that a turning point for you? 

A: It definitely motivated me and as of 2009 I volunteered and started working for a grassroots organisation in Kyiv as a peer-counselor at the OAT site. Slowly I left my marketing job and dedicated myself to the cause. At first, I worked for the Association of Substitution Therapy Advocates of Ukraine (ASTAU), and later joined the leading HIV CSO in EECA region, Alliance for Public Health. Feeling my commitment to invest my knowledge and motivation into the development of the global drug users’ rights movement and communities mobilisation, I co-founded Ukrainian Network of People who Use Drugs (VOLNa), contributed to the Eastern European Central Asian Network of People who Use Drugs (ENPUD), and worked for European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG.) I have also given a lot of speeches at AIDS and Harm Reduction conferences!  And after being on the board of INPUD, I was appointed as INPUD Executive Director in 2025.   

Q: INPUD's latest report ' The Human Costs of Policy Change: A World in Turmoil' documents the impact of recent funding cuts. What are they? 

A: We are witnessing needle and syringe programs closing or being severely reduced. A lack of access to harm reduction supplies spiked from 47% in 2025 to 64% in 2026, stigma and discrimination jumped from 60% to 77%, policing or criminalisation increased from 42% to 64%. For women who use drugs, the consequences have been even more severe, with reductions in gender-based violence services, child-friendly spaces and low-threshold treatment programs. As someone who has lived through HIV, hepatitis C, criminalisation and exclusion from healthcare, I know that people do not stop using drugs because services disappear. They simply disappear from services until they return with advanced HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis C, or... they DO not return at all. 

Q: What is your main call to action? 

A: The lesson is clear. Funding community-led harm reduction is not optional. It is one of the most cost-effective investments in the HIV response. We cannot end AIDS while allowing the organisations closest to affected communities to disappear. INPUD wants donors, partners, governments to protect and expand sustainable, direct and flexible funding for community-led organisations of people who use drugs and safeguard comprehensive harm reduction services, including needle and syringe programmes and opioid agonist therapy. Also know that the funding cuts collided with criminalisation and shrinking civic space which has been horrible. We must accelerate drug policy reform, including decriminalisation, as an essential structural intervention to end AIDS. 

Q: You keep hammering one message, what is it? 

A: Our message is simple: if communities disappear, the HIV response disappears with them. 

Q: And what are you proudest of?  

A: Professionally, I am very happy to have started harm reduction programmes in probation services. It has gone from a pilot programme to full scale in Ukraine and proud to mobilise the successful country drug users network, VOLNa, which unites more than 1,500 individual members and is a real driver of critical changes in Ukraine and EECA region. 

I am also very proud of my son who is now seven years old living free of HIV.  

UNAIDS advocates for harm reduction responses to be tailored to the realities of people who use drugs, recognizing that HIV risk and access are shaped by gender inequality, age, sexual orientation, incarceration, displacement and humanitarian crises. We must move away from criminal sanctions for drug use and possession for personal use and instead adopt public health and human-rights based approaches. Integrating harm reduction into national health systems and domestic financing frameworks will guarantee that essential services do not stop putting people’s lives at risk. Finally, UNAIDS believes in strengthening and protecting community leadership. Organizations led by people who use drugs must be able to register, operate and access funding freely.

AIDS 2026 will  be the first major global gathering following the UN General Assembly  High-Level Meeting on HIV and AIDS where countries came together and committed to new targets as part of efforts to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. 

The conference comes at a critical moment as these global commitments must translate into country-level implementation. Sustained political leadership is needed as well as and concrete financing commitments from both donors and countries most affected by HIV, particularly in a time of constrained resources. 

On the opening day of the conference (27 July), UNAIDS will be releasing a special report, United to End AIDS, which gives the latest data on HIV from 2025. 

UNAIDS will  focus its engagement on three strategic areas:          

• Supporting all countries to achieve the targets set out in the Global AIDS Strategy 2026-2031 and the 2026 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS
• Protecting HIV prevention and community-led services, particularly for key populations, women and girls, and young people.
• Mobilizing sustainable HIV financing, including maintaining international support and advancing domestic financing and transition planning.

EVENTS:

SATURDAY 25

Living 2026  Pre-conference - 08:00-17:00 

LIVING2026 is convened by GNP+ in partnership with the Prevention Access Campaign (PAC), marking ten years of Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U).

SUNDAY 26

Rethink, Rebuild, Rise - SRHR/HIV integration and community leadership in a new funding era - Room 103 / 14:00-15:00 

A powerful opening dialogue on the political context of the HIV response. Focusing on human rights, global equity, and the political courage needed to rethink and rebuild resilient health systems.

MONDAY 27

Making HIV elimination in the Americas a reality: Leadership, evidence, action - Room 204 / 11:30 – 12:30 

This symposium will present HIV elimination as an urgent public health priority and a realistic goal for the Americas. It will highlight country leadership and share lessons learned from applying evidence to policy and practice. The session will formally introduce the Alliance for the Elimination of HIV in the Americas, a regional platform created to accelerate progress toward 2030.

Opening press conference: Launch of UNAIDS special report – United to end AIDS - Press conference room / 14:00 – 15:00 

On the opening day of the 26th International Aids Conference in Rio de Janeiro, taking place from 27 to 31 July 2026, UNAIDS is releasing a new report showing the extent and impact of funding cuts and disruptions experienced in 2025 as well as global progress in the AIDS response. 

Women's networking Zone 2026 Opening ceremony - Global village / 15:00-16:30 

TUESDAY 28

A wake-up call for youth-led HIV responses: Are young people being left behind? – Youth pavilion / 13:00 – 14:00 

This panel discussion will bring together representatives from Y+ Global programmes and external partners to explore how youth-led responses to HIV are evolving in today's changing landscape. Panellists will reflect on the challenges facing youth-led organisations, examine what a truly inclusive and integrated response looks like, and highlight practical solutions to ensure young people remain at the centre of programme design, implementation, advocacy, and decision-making.

WEDNESDAY 29

Leadership at the tipping point: Protecting the gains and advancing progress in a new era of the HIV response – Room 201 / 10:30 – 11:30

This symposium will examine ways to balance global solidarity and national sovereignty in an evolving landscape that demands both. Speakers will discuss strategies to ensure that the urgent need to prioritize a renewed HIV response is met at all levels: within national budgets; through coordination at the regional level; and by bold investments into the architecture required to bring discovery to delivery.

Right to health - IAS Booth Global Village / 14:00 - 14:45

Right to Health event at the AIDS 2026 conference with incoming UN Special Rapporteur on the Right the Health Mariângela Simão and UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima

Leading for the future: Re-centering women, children, and adolescents as a pathway to sustained HIV epidemic control - Room 201 / 18:00-19:30 

This Symposium is about shaping the future we want — together. As Keynote Speaker, Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS, will reflect on the leadership and collective commitment needed to build the future we want — in the spirit of the newly adopted UN Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS and with communities leading the way. 

THURSDAY 30

Global Inequality Council high-level meeting Ebola, AIDS, COVID and Beyond: Breaking the inequality-pandemic cycle, featuring Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz - Plenary room 101A / 10:30 – 11:30 

This session aims to frame HIV within the broader context of pandemics and inequality in particular, the relationship between inequality and pandemic risk, and the implications for global health architecture and financing. 

From Political Declaration to community action: Using the 2026 UN High-Level Meeting on HIV and AIDS as an advocacy tool - Room 101C / 16:30 – 17:30

This workshop will examine the outcomes of the 2026 UN High-Level Meeting on HIV and AIDS and explore what the new Political Declaration means for communities, advocacy, accountability and the future of the HIV response. Through keynote reflections, stakeholder presentations and interactive table discussions, participants will analyze how the Political Declaration can serve as a practical advocacy tool across countries and regions.  

FRIDAY 31

Political leadership matters: Renewing parliamentary action for the HIV response - Room 205 / 10:30-11:30

Following the UN High-Level Meeting, this session of the Global Parliamentary Platform on HIV and AIDS will demonstrate how parliamentary leadership can help rethink strategies, rebuild political momentum, and rise to future challenges in the global HIV response.

On the opening day of the 26th International Aids Conference in Rio de Janeiro, taking place from 27 to 31 July 2026, UNAIDS is releasing a new report showing the extent and impact of funding cuts and disruptions experienced in 2025 as well as global progress in the AIDS response.   

The new report ‘United to End AIDS’ will show the severity of the cuts to funding and the impact on HIV prevention, community services, key populations and the sustainability and future of the AIDS response.  

The report will include countries experiencing rises in new HIV infections as well as countries continuing to progress towards reaching the 2030 targets and will look at ways forward to end AIDS by 2030.  

WHAT: Launch of new UNAIDS Report on HIV United to End AIDS 

WHEN: Monday 27 July, 14:00 BRT, 17:00 GMT, 19:00 CET 

MEDIA REGISTRATION: Registration | AIDS 2026 | International AIDS Society (IAS) 

INTERVIEWS: UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, senior UNAIDS staff and experts across all regions are available for interviews. 

CONTACT:  

Sophie Barton-Knott | bartonknotts@unaids.org | +41 79 514 6896 

Daniel De Castro | DeCastroD@unaids.org | +55 61 9 8221 1502 

Thaina Da Rosa Kedzierski | KedzierskiTH@unaids.org | +55 61 9 9304 2654 

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.