The Pompidou Group provides a multidisciplinary forum at the wider European level where it is possible for policy makers, professionals and researchers to exchange experiences and information on drug use and drug trafficking. Formed at the suggestion of French President Georges Pompidou in 1971, it became a Council of Europe enlarged partial agreement in 1980 open to countries outside the Council of Europe.

On 16 June 2021, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted the revised Pompidou Group’s statute which extends the group’s mandate to include addictive behaviours related to licit substances (such as alcohol or tobacco) and new forms of addictions (such as internet gambling and gaming). The new mandate focuses on human rights, while reaffirming the need for a multidisciplinary approach to addressing the drug challenge which can only be tackled effectively if policy, practice and science are linked. To better reflect both its identity as a Council of Europe entity and its broadened mandate, the group changed its official name from the Co-operation Group to Combat Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking to the Council of Europe International Co-operation Group on Drugs and Addiction. In 2023, it encompasses 41 countries out of the 46 member states of the Council of Europe, Mexico, Morocco and Israel, as well as the European Commission.

The year 2021 marked the launch of a new project concerning children whose parents use drugs, followed by a publication in 2022, Children whose parents use drugs – Promising practices and recommendations. This project was proposed in response to the invitation to the Pompidou Group secretariat to contribute to the discussions on the Council of Europe Strategy on the Rights of the Child for the period 2022-27. This strategy, adopted in 2022, includes in its objective “Equal opportunities and social inclusion for all children” the action “2.2.6 Mapping, analysing and provid- ing guidance on the situation of children suffering from addictive behaviours and children of parents using drugs”.

In 2022, the project on children whose parents use drugs continued with threefold research: i. qualitative research based on interviews with children whose parents use drugs and with women who use drugs; ii. collection and analysis of actions and programmes targeted at people who use drugs and their families; and iii. children growing up in families impacted by drug dependence and other contexts of vulnerability. The results are also included in two other publications: We are warriors – Women who use drugs reflect on parental drug use, their paths of consumption and access to services, with the participation of Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Mexico, Romania and Switzerland; and Listen to the silence of the child – Children share their experiences and proposals on the impact of drug use in the family, with interviews from Greece, Malta, Mexico, Romania and Switzerland.

This report analyses 33 programmes from the 11 participating countries, which include actions in the field of data gathering, parenting programmes, social and integrated services for children, multidisciplinary, holistic approaches to working with families, services for women victims and survivors of gender-based violence, protocols of cooperation, drug treatment services and residential communities for women and their children. While this study does not constitute an assessment and the experiences presented are not described or defined as good practices, altogether they do offer a picture through which more comprehensive, child-centred approaches to drug policies in general, and drug treatment in particular, could be designed. This study is part of an ongoing effort to which an ever-growing number of people and countries have contributed their knowledge as well their achievements and challenges. International collaboration and practice exchange is one of the constitutive elements and, at the same time, one of the purposes of this project and of this study, with the ultimate goal of increasingly promoting drug policies which mainstream human rights, children’s rights and women’s rights.