Category: NAT
Action Call to Faith Leaders
posted: 08/04/2011
Religious leaders around the world are urged to really think about how faith communities help or hinder support for people living with HIV, in a new report.
The report, Prayer alone is not enough – people’s stories of HIV and Faith was published on World Health Day, 7 April. It gives first-hand accounts of people living with HIV, and of people working to support people with HIV, in poor and marginalised communities in Zimbabwe, Yemen, and El Salvador.
"The stories are deeply personal, often brutally honest and challenging, and share emotions that range from grief to encouragement, from despair to hope," said Christine Allen, Progressio's executive director.
Wide range of people
Interviewees, including Christian and Muslim faith leaders, child heads of household, sex workers, former gang members, and development workers, reflect movingly on their own personal experiences of faith in the light of HIV.
- Jane, a married woman living with HIV in Zimbabwe, said: "People living with HIV don't want church members to know because they will be stigmatised."
- Abdulla Mohammed El Qadesi, an imam in Yemen recalls: "I used to think HIV was a punishment from God… I changed my mind about it".
- Ana Deysi in El Salvador said: "As a person of faith working in the HIV community, I consider the HIV community to be my community."
Human Face for the Future
The report gives a human face to a diverse group of people living with HIV in difficult circumstances - all of whom have shared their experiences in the hope of building understanding.
Faith matters with HIV
Their personal accounts demonstrate that the attitudes and behaviours of faith communities really do matter and can make the difference between people living with HIV being able to access care, support and treatment or not.
"Mobilising faith communities to break the silence, confront stigma and condemn discrimination surrounding HIV is essential if we are to overcome this barrier" the report concludes.
Prayer alone is not enough is an invaluable insight to anyone willing to examine their own attitudes and reflect on how we, and faith communities especially, can play a positive part in an effective response to HIV.
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Be A HIV Activist
posted: 08/04/2011
A crowd has far more affect than a single voice shouting for change. HIV Activists is a way to join with others to make your voice for better HIV support heard.
With so many cuts and changes affecting so many people with HIV now and over the next few years we need to work with others to make a difference.
HIV Activists Network is run by NAT and it works together with Positively UK, the Stigma Index and of course the Activists themselves.
They use a handy set of online tools to make things simple and easy to join in and help.
What’s next?
They have a list of things they are campaigning about now and you can join in as many or as few as you wish
Here's some of them
- email your MP about the Welfare Reform Bill
- write to your local NHS about HIV prevention and testing
- Sign NAT’s Agenda for Action
- Talk to your local faith leaders
- Talk to your local gay businesses
- Contacting local schools
- emailing your local councillor about cuts to HIV Social Care
- Contact to your Trade Union
If you are interesting in joining the 'HIV Activists Network' or simply want to find out more, you can
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Non-Discrimination Law Guide
posted: 04/04/2011
The first ever Handbook on European Non-Discrimination Law is now available. It offers practical guidance to help people with discrimination claims at the UK’s Courts and Tribunals. Since the UK made the Human Rights Act part of UK law almost all discrimination cases are dealt with in the UK. The handbook is based on the decisions made by the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg and the European Court of Justice in Brussels.
The handbook is intended for advice workers, human rights organisations, equality bodies like the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission, as well as lawyers, judges, and prosecutors.
It contains the context and background to European non-discrimination law (including the UN human rights treaties), discrimination categories and defences, the scope of the law (including who is protected), and the grounds protected, such as sex, sexuality, disability, age, race and nationality.
It’s been published jointly by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and the European Court of Human Rights, and is the first comprehensive guide to all European non-discrimination law.
"The Guide will improve access to justice for victims of discrimination across Europe. It sets out the complicated system of rules in a simple and comprehensive manner. It is fitting that this successful joint venture should be launched as we prepare for the accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights."
Jean-Paul Costa president of ECtHR
Handbook on European Non-Discrimination Law
European Anti-Discrimination Law Review
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Human Rights Court - HIV discrimination
posted: 18/03/2011
The European Court of Human Rights has just made a helpful and important ruling about HIV discrimination. The court said discrimination against people with HIV is so widespread that it means people with HIV are a “vulnerable group with a history of prejudice and stigmatisation”.
This ruling makes it easier for other people to make HIV discrimination claims on human rights grounds. This means people with HIV will automatically be treated in future human rights cases as 'vulnerable'. This means one less thing to prove when making a human rights claim in UK courts and tribunals.
With cuts to public services for people with HIV, including access to free legal aid, more people with HIV in the UK are likely to need to use the Human Rights Act. This ruling will help.
The European Court case was against Russia. Russia refused a residence permit to a man from Uzbekistan (who is married to a Russian woman with whom he has a child) simply because he is HIV-positive. The Court said this plainly breached their human right to family life. If he hadn’t had HIV he would have been given the residence permit to live with his wife and child in Russia.
The court said, "The mere presence of a HIV-positive individual in a country is not in itself a threat to public health."
Human Right to Family Life and non-discrimination
Russia was found to have broken Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to family life, and Article 14, which bans discrimination.
Last October, the European Human Rights Court ruled against Russia because of Moscow's bans of gay pride events. Then the court found that Russia was breaking the European Convention guarantees of freedom of assembly and association, the right to an effective remedy and prohibition of discrimination.
Source
More details on this New York law professor’s blog
European Court of Human Rights
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International HIV Sidelines Gay Men
posted: 07/03/2011
Every two years the world’s biggest HIV conference faces criticism for sidelining the needs of gay men, sex workers, transgender people, and injecting drug users. The International AIDS Society conference visited Vienna in 2010, around 25,000 people attended, but it still grossly under-represented four groups most at risk for HIV infection.
A detailed study by the Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF), confirms the long-held suspicions and criticism of this neglect, and calls for change.
The International AIDS Society may be part of the problem, but it can solve it.
Shame of stigma and discrimination
Stigma and discrimination against marginalised and unpopular groups affected by HIV is unprofessional and brings shame on the International AIDS Society.
The 2010 conference programme seriously neglected key needs. There is little exclusive time and exposure given to the four groups, and the four groups are often ignored even in general studies.
- Only 6.6% of the abstracts of studies were only concerned with gay and bi men / MSM, 5.7% targeted only people who use drugs, 3.5% looked only at sex workers, and 0.6% solely considered transgender people.
- Only 3.8% of ordinary conference sessions exclusively focused on gay and bi men / MSM, 5.1% on IDU people, 2.5% on sex workers and 0% on transgender people.
- Just 3.7% of all workshops exclusively focused on gay and bi men / MSM, 6.4% on people who use drugs, and 0% on sex workers and 0% on transgender people.
- Out of over 4,500 abstracts sent in for selection and publicity, only 558 even mentioned MSM, only 442 mentioned IDU, just 338 mentioned sex workers, and a bare 134 mentioned transgender people.
- Only 2.6% of all sessions in the entire conference programme exclusively focused on MSM, 4.5% exclusively focused on IDU, 3.0% on sex workers and 1.1% on transgender people.
The percentage of all sessions at the conference exclusively focused on the four marginalised groups was 2.6% for MSM, 1.1% for transgender people, 3% for sex workers and 4.5% for people who use drugs.
Research shows these four populations are at higher risk for HIV than the general population in nearly every country where reliable data exist.
Compare tiny conference gestures with actual needs
- MSM represent more than a quarter of HIV infections in Latin America and the Caribbean
- People who inject drugs are more than half of HIV infections in Eastern Europe
- Up to half of all sex workers across Sub-Saharan Africa have HIV
- Transgender people in El Salvador, Indonesia and India have HIV rates as high as 25%, 35%, and 42% respectively.
"Abysmal representation reinforces discrimination and invisibility"
“While the International AIDS Society turns a blind eye, HIV rates among these populations continue to climb around the world,” said Dr. George Ayala, Executive Officer of the MSMGF.
“The IAC is the world’s most important opportunity for international exchange and collaboration on HIV and AIDS. Such abysmal representation of most-at-risk groups only serves to reinforce the invisibility, discrimination and disregard that drive the epidemic among these communities.”
“Ostensibly, the IAC offers chances for local healthcare providers to learn ways to improve their services, provides channels for advocates to engage in dialogue with powerful decision-makers, and creates opportunities for community members to shape global funding and research agendas,” said Dr. Mohan Sundararaj, Policy Associate at the MSMGF. “This really is a phenomenal platform, but how useful can it be when those who need it most are locked out?”
Calls for change
The report recommends steps to make the Conference programme fairer, based on the numbers of people affected . These include involving the communities affected in the conference planning.
“The International AIDS Conference has unparalleled potential to impact the global AIDS epidemic,” said Dr. Ayala. “It is incumbent upon the organizers to ensure that the IAC becomes a vehicle for change, shifting the global landscape so that funding, research and programs are directed to those who need them most. Right now it’s part of the problem.”
Source The Global Forum on MSM & HIV
Read the full report Coverage of Four Key Populations at the 2010 International AIDS Conference: Implications for Leadership and Accountability in the Global AIDS Response February 2011
The Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF) is an expanding network of AIDS organizations, MSM networks, and advocates committed to ensuring robust coverage of and equitable access to effective HIV prevention, care, treatment, and support services tailored to the needs of gay men and other MSM. Guided by a Steering Committee of 20 members from 18 countries situated mainly in the Global South, and with administrative and fiscal support from AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA), the MSMGF works to promote MSM health and human rights worldwide through advocacy, information exchange, knowledge production, networking, and capacity building.
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