Globally, woman who use drugs make up approximately one third of people who use drugs,1 yet in drug policy, there is little or no special attention for this group. Woman who use drugs are more likely to have experienced gender-based violence than women in the general population.2 Gender-based violence consists of multiple forms of violence against women, violence committed by intimate partners and violence from non -partners including law enforcement officers. While data is rare, analysis of available evidence indicates that women who use drugs experience rates of gender-based violence 5 and 24 times higher than that against women in the general population.3,4 Women who use drugs who experience violence have to overcome structural barriers associated with criminalisation if they report their case to law enforcement officers and in doing so, they risk becoming a victim of violence rom law enforcement itself. For example, based on a study in Georgia, 13% of woman who use drugs had been asked by police officers to provide sex during their arrest.
In Azerbaijan, 15% of women who use drugs reported being physically assaulted by police and 7% reported having been raped and experiencing other coercive sex by police officers. 6 A study conducted in Guangxi China, found that guards at the mandatory rehabilitation center used HIV test data to determine which women who use drugs they would have sex with without the use of condoms. In Indonesia, which currently maintains the criminalisation of people who use drugs, these phenomena also occur. Women who use drugs in Indonesia are reported to experience high rates of gender-based violence according to various research and monitoring reports.
Research was conducted by Rumah Cemara in 20078 in eight cities in Indonesia with a total of 193 respondents consisting of 52 women and 79 men who inject drugs and 62 women whose partners who inject drugs. It was found that women in drug circles experienced physical, psychological and sexual violence. 9 Some women experienced violence from their partners if they could not provide drugs or money for drugs for their partners. Women reportedly did not leave their violent partner because of fear of loneliness and being abandoned.
