African Asks of Government
posted: 05/05/2010
This is a compilation of the voices, issues, needs and thoughts of African communities living with and affected by HIV in the UK, put together by the African HIV Policy Network.
These are the issues African people living with and affected by HIV in the UK want the next Government to deal with.
We ask the UK Government to:
- Provide free HIV testing, treatment and care for any person living in the UK, including those who are detained or in the prison system.
- Invest in public awareness, prevention, research and education programmes on HIV and sexual health to challenge stigma at all levels of society.
- Address the level of mental health problems affecting Africans living with HIV and seek to improve the health and well being outcomes for African communities in the UK.
- Put measures in place for effective management of the transition of children living with and affected by HIV into adolescent services, and from adolescent to adulthood, ensuring that the rights of families remain protected.
- Promote the elimination of all forms of discrimination of people living with HIV and eradicate any discriminatory practice in public and private spheres.
- Reverse the law on criminalisation of HIV transmission as it is not an effective tool for prevention. It instead reinforces stigma and discrimination of the most affected communities.
- Review the impact of current immigration guidelines and practice on people living with HIV and take an approach that is embedded in Human Rights, equality, dignity and respect.
- Review the rights of asylum seekers and their right to work as this would save the state money and encourage integration into the UK society.
- Invest in community development to achieve active and meaningful involvement of communities and individuals living with and affected by HIV, so that their voices influence decision making. For example, we ask that a person living with HIV have a seat on the All Party Parliament Group on AIDS (APPGA).
- Influence and ensure better EU-wide HIV and health policy that affect African communities and involve Africans in the diaspora in decisions that are being made regarding development in Africa.
African HIV Policy Network wants to see:
- Communities less at risk
- Strong and strategic communities’ voices
- Sustained support for communities’ well being
Some key facts:
- There are over a million Africans in the UK and this is growing significantly, especially in London
- Of the 83,000 people living with HIV in the UK, about 25,000 of them are Africans, 7,000 of whom don’t know they have HIV
- Africans make up more than half the people diagnosed with HIV in England every year and late diagnosis is still a major problem
- Africans generally experience worse health and social problems and African people living with HIV usually have particular health and social care needs
- HIV stigma is a still a problem, threatening valued means of support, personal networks, health and wellbeing of Africans in the UK.
AHPN 10 Asks of the Government
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