Friday 01 August
2008, San José, Costa Rica
HEALTH:
People Living with HIV
Lead the Fight for Life
By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY (IPS) -
Anuar Luna was diagnosed
with HIV 17 years ago.
"I had to overcome
feelings of guilt, fear
and shame before I
became a leader in the
HIV-positive community,"
she said Thursday at the
opening of Living 2008:
The Positive Leadership
Summit, in the Mexican
capital.
Luna is now one of the
leading activists in
defence of the rights of
people living with HIV
and the fight against
AIDS in Mexico.
But despite the
influence and visibility
gained by the movement
over the last decade,
people living with HIV
continue to face
discrimination,
isolation, and
criminalisation for HIV
transmission.
Although success has
been achieved in terms
of access to medicine
and treatment, stigma
and discrimination
continue to tarnish
these accomplishments,
Peter Piot, executive
director of the Joint
United Nations Programme
on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS),
said at the opening
ceremony of Living 2008.
The two-day
International People
Living with HIV (PLHIV)
conference, which has
drawn around 350
delegates of
organisations of
HIV-positive people from
around the world, is
organised by a
consortium of
non-governmental groups
committed to
strengthening the
movement of people
living with HIV, and
sponsored by
foundations, donors and
international bodies.
A 1983 national AIDS
conference in the U.S.
city of Denver, Colorado
is considered to have
marked the birth of the
PLHIV movement, when a
group of HIV/AIDS
activists publicly
expressed for the first
time the needs and
demands of people living
with HIV, voicing the
idea that their personal
experiences should help
shape the design of
policies.
The movement took on an
international dimension
when 42 countries signed
the Paris Declaration,
also known as the
Declaration on the
Greater Involvement of
People Living with
HIV/AIDS (GIPA), at the
1994 Paris AIDS summit.
The document helped pave
the way for the U.N.
Declaration of
Commitment and People
Living with HIV, adopted
by the U.N. General
Assembly in 2001.
Luna, a co-founder of
the Mexican Network of
People Living with HIV,
said that "a feeling of
survival led us to hold
demonstrations and fight
for our rights."
"In Paraguay, we have a
law that allows
discriminatory
practices," María
Ferreira, secretary
general of the
non-governmental
Fundación Vencer, told
IPS, referring to her
country’s legislation on
HIV/AIDS.
"We want to modify it so
that people living with
HIV don’t lose their
jobs and are not barred
from schools because of
the disease," she said.
The Fundación Vencer,
which brings together
HIV-positive people, is
a pioneer in the fight
against AIDS in
Paraguay.
Living 2008 is
discussing issues like
universal access to
treatment, support for
people living with HIV,
AIDS prevention, sexual
and reproductive rights,
and the criminalisation
of HIV transmission.
It is one of the many
activities in the run-up
to the 17th
International AIDS
Conference or "AIDS
2008", which will be
held Aug. 3-8 in the
Mexican capital with the
participation of some
25,000 researchers,
delegates of
international bodies,
and representatives of
the governments of 150
nations.
According to the UNAIDS
global report 2008,
released Tuesday, there
were an estimated 33
million people living
with HIV worldwide in
2007, with nearly 7,500
new infections a day,
while some two million
people died of AIDS last
year.
In Latin America and the
Caribbean, an estimated
1.7 million people are
HIV-positive, and 63,000
died of AIDS-related
causes in 2007.
In this region, the
number of people
receiving antiretroviral
treatment has grown to
390,000, but another
630,000 do not receive
the life-extending
drugs.
An effective response to
the epidemic will not be
possible without the
active participation of
those living with the
disease, said Piot.
In Uganda, where only
600,000 of the 1.2
million people living
with HIV receive
antiretroviral therapy,
the most serious problem
is the criminalisation
of the transmission of
HIV among gay men.
"There are two cases
that have not yet been
resolved; if the accused
are found guilty, they
could be sentenced to
two years in prison,"
Sam Mugisha, with Red
Cross Uganda, told IPS.
"International pressure
is necessary to change
the laws, and that is
not happening," said
Mugisha, who added that
in Uganda there are nine
organisations involved
in the fight against
AIDS.
Studies presented
Thursday at Living 2008
reflect an increase in
persecution through laws
on AIDS and other
legislation. The
criminalisation of HIV
transmission is
counterproductive for
public health and is not
a solution for curbing
the epidemic, according
to the reports.
To deal with such
reactions, organisations
of people living with
HIV have been focusing
on leadership training.
A survey discussed at
the conference shows
that 96 percent of
respondents considered
leadership important, 86
percent said they felt
ready to take part in
public activities, and
71 percent said networks
of HIV-positive people
promote the emergence of
leaders.
The 10-question survey
was carried out in the
first two weeks of July
in three languages.
Seventy percent of
interviewees said they
belonged to networks and
94 percent said the
voice of people living
with HIV was important.
International People
Living with HIV
conferences have been
held regularly in
different locations
around the world since
1986, with the latest
organised in Poland
(1999), Trinidad and
Tobago (2001) and Uganda
(2003). The conclusions
of The Positive
Leadership Summit will
be presented at next
week’s AIDS 2008
conference.
The consortium that
organised Living 2008
consists of the Global
Network of People Living
with HIV/AIDS (GNP+),
International Community
of Women Living with
HIV/AIDS (ICW),
International Council of
AIDS Service
Organisations (ICASO),
International HIV/AIDS
Alliance, International
AIDS Society (IAS),
International Federation
of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies (IFRC),
International Planned
Parenthood Federation (IPPF),
Mexican Network of
People Living with HIV,
Sidaction, UNAIDS, and
World Health
Organisation (WHO). |
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