500,000 petition against Uganda's anti-gay HIV-hate law

posted: 09/03/2010

Half a million people signed a petition delivered to the Ugandan Parliament Speaker Edward Ssekandi on March 1 opposing the proposed law that would jail gays for life and punish men with HIV with the death penalty.
The petition came from HIV-positive Anglican priest, Canon Gideon Byamugisha, along with other religious leaders and HIV activists, including former Anglican Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo.

"In the interests of safer, healthier, more peaceful, and more prosperous lives for all Ugandans; we as Aids Service Providers, pastors and spiritual mentors of all Ugandans are calling for the withdrawal of this Bill from Parliament," the petition read in part. "We are united in opposing this Bill because if passed into law it threatens the health, peace and well being of Ugandan citizens and goes against the Ugandan Constitution."

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009 would
• jail for life anyone convicted of the ‘offense’ of homosexuality,
• punish ‘aggravated homosexuality’ – which means anyone who is HIV-positive and has gay sex -- with the death penalty,
• forbid the ‘promotion of homosexuality,’
• lock up gay-rights campaigners, and
• jail people in positions of authority for up to three years for failing to report within 24 hours all LGBT people or sympathisers they know.

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Asylum - Human Rights Ignored

posted: 09/03/2010

A new report for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission lays bare the UK government’s abuse of the human rights of asylum seekers and refugees living here, including many who are living with HIV. People seeking sanctuary in Britain are denied vital healthcare whether they are in detention centres or living in the community, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has found. Hundreds of rape victims, people living with HIV, and traumatised children are missing out on treatment and basic medical help.
 

Institutional failures

The report, from the University of Kent, warns "There is evidence of an institutional failure to address health concerns about asylum seekers in detention. More specifically there are concerns about children's health, mental health, treatment for those with HIV and access to female GPs, especially for women who have suffered rape and sexual violence."
 

Asylum and medical charity workers said the findings confirmed the experience of hundreds of refugees. A spokeswoman for Medical Justice said: "Sadly and unsurprisingly, findings of these failures accord with what our volunteer doctors have been seeing on the hundreds of occasions they have visited immigration detainees and seen their medical notes."
 

Time for action

This EHRC report sets out problems of poor treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. There are some serious failings. We’ll be checking to see what action the Commission now takes to end the government’s mistreatment and denial of people’s human rights.

HIV, health and social care
Inadequate HIV healthcare is one of the points highlighted in the healthcare section of the report. There are specific concerns around vulnerable groups. For women asylum seekers and refugees there is evidence of poor antenatal care and pregnancy outcomes. There is little evidence of the commissioning of services for disabled asylum seekers (such as everyone with HIV) and no clear guidance exists on local authority responsibilities towards asylum seekers with care needs. Mental health problems including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety are prevalent among asylum seekers and refugees, and the provision of mental health services for survivors of torture and organised violence is widely regarded as inadequate.
 

The vulnerability and ill health of asylum-seeking and refugee children is an area of particular concern, as are the health needs of older refugees. There are also concerns around the provision of healthcare to asylum seekers in detention with communicable diseases and with HIV/AIDS.
 

Poverty, destitution and access to accommodation and financial support
Asylum seekers are vulnerable to poverty and destitution (defined as not having adequate accommodation or support for themselves and their dependants for the next 14 days) as a result of a number of factors. These include: the circumstances in which they and their dependants arrive in the UK (often without money or accommodation), the complexity of the rules for entitlement to financial and other support for asylum seekers and those refused asylum, the occurrence of administrative and casework errors, and the fact that the vast majority of asylum seekers do not have permission to work.

Evidence indicates that refused asylum seekers are the most disadvantaged group and evidence of destitution appears to run counter to Section 11 of Chapter 42 of the Human Rights Act 1988 and Council Directive 2003/9/EC.
 

Care needs gaps
Asylum seekers with care needs are particularly vulnerable to poverty and to falling through the gaps between Home Office and social services support. Other vulnerable groups include single women and those with children.
 

There are concerns about the specific requirements that asylum seekers must meet when lodging a claim in order to be eligible for support. The incompatibility of the Section 55 and 9 provisions with Articles 3 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) remains a key concern, as do the conditions that asylum seekers must comply with in order to receive Section 4 support. Complex issues surround the provision of support for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, and there are doubts as to whether the UK’s responsibilities under domestic legislation and international human rights principles are being fulfilled.
 

Key issues for action now by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission
There is an ongoing tension between policies relating to immigration control and those concerned with welfare. This lies at the heart of many of the concerns regarding the equality and human rights of asylum seekers and refugees.

• Processes for removal involving detention and deportation have been the subject of sustained criticism on human rights grounds.
• Living conditions and support received by asylum seekers and refugees in the UK also cause concern. There are general inefficiencies within the system: many people do not know or understand the process, and receive different and conflicting advice from different agencies. On accommodation and support, the impact of the Section 55 and Section 9 provisions has been of considerable concern and, despite various clarifications and revisions by the government, may continue to have an adverse impact on asylum seekers. The quality of housing remains problematic and in some instances appears to conflict with the respect for family and home required by Article 8 of the ECHR.
• There is evidence of problems of access to healthcare. There is a serious lack of clarity with respect to the healthcare entitlements of asylum seekers and this feeds into confusion at ground level.
• Policies and practices within the asylum system covering the seven equality areas, as well as the treatment of vulnerable groups, also cause concern. The provisions put in place by UKBA in order to meet its legal requirements to take gender, race and disability into account have been criticised, and there is clearly a need for more rigorous and widespread equality impact assessments of the various aspects of the asylum system. Furthermore, less consideration is given to those equality areas not subject to the current equality duties. Ideally, the introduction of a new single equality duty covering all seven strands should help to initiate consideration of the issues affecting gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans asylum seekers, as well as those of different ages and with different religion or beliefs.

EHRC report (pdf) - Refugees and asylum seekers : a review from an equality and human rights perspective

Source 
Equality and Human Rights Commission
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Positive Men’s Sex Rights

posted: 09/03/2010

Calls to improve the sexual health of gay and bisexual men living with HIV across England were made at the national gay men’s sexual health conference that has just ended in Sheffield. George House Trust put up a strong case for improving the sexual health support provided for all men living with HIV.
 

Top experts
The conference heard from four George House Trust experts, including young gay Positive Speaker Craig, who came out about having HIV to thousands at the Manchester Pride Candlelit Vigil. In five out of the six conference sessions, our experts led the way. The conference heard that meeting the sexual health needs of gay and bisexual men living with HIV is critical, about positive prevention (involving positive men in reducing onward HIV transmission), calls for widespread campaigns to stop HIV stigma among gay men, and for the greater use of positive speakers to challenge stigma and empower men living with HIV.
 

And positive men too
We’ve been campaigning about these for years. Our efforts are paying off, but improving things across the whole country is slow because we can only persuade and encourage other organisations to do the right thing. At last, CHAPS has now added supporting men living with HIV to the national strategy for gay and bisexual men’s HIV prevention.
 

Status check
With LGF, who are part of CHAPS, we produced our Update Your Status campaign encouraging undiagnosed gay and bisexual men to test regularly for HIV. Testing and diagnosis helps improve the sexual health of men who do turn out to have HIV and cuts the number of gay men diagnosed with HIV too late for the men to get the best out of their HIV treatment.
 

Positive prevention pioneers
In the next couple of months we will hold an national symposium in Manchester for experts in Positive Prevention with gay and bisexual men with HIV. This will start work on the first national CHAPS programme for gay men’s positive prevention.
 

Positive prevention was neglected because the national strategy aimed instead at undiagnosed men. This left out the many positive men who are passionate about reducing HIV transmission. George House Trust wants men with HIV involved in developing the resources, knowledge and skills to maximize sexual health and cut HIV transmission.
 

Work in some countries on positive prevention is well ahead of the UK – for instance Canada already has its national Poz Prevention strategy and has produced a booklet for HIV+ gay men and Ireland has its own booklet.
 

Face to face and working behind the scenes
Most of George House Trust’s efforts directly support people living with HIV. What is not so well known is our important behind the scenes work. This backstage work aims to cut the number of people becoming HIV positive and working for better services to meet the changing needs of people living with HIV across the country. It’s not so glamorous and it often takes time to show results, but work like this is essential to prevent even more gay and bisexual men from needing services in the first place, as well as improving the lives of men who do have HIV.
 

Our behind the scenes work is a form of long term indirect prevention - taking steps to stop even more people becoming HIV positive. Everyone who gets HIV potentially requires a life time of support from services such as ours.
 

HIV Services Survey

posted: 08/03/2010

HIV charities are keen to hear how useful their services are and what you expect. Positively Women, NAZ and Positive East have a quick survey for you – and there’s a matching survey for HIV organisations.

There are very simple quick questions about you and then it gets straight down to two questions about how useful HIV community services are to you.
 

The survey ends on 31 March and people living with HIV who use services can take part here 

Organisations - If you are a HIV organisation the survey to complete is here 
 

Psychologists and Confidentiality

posted: 08/03/2010

A 20 page booklet of guidance from the British Psychological Society advises psychologists working in the NHS how to deal with HIV confidentiality where people may be exposing their partners to HIV. The guidance – ‘Criminalisation of HIV Transmission – guidelines regarding confidentiality and exposure’ has best practice guidelines, sections on dealing with police enquires and on disclosing information to partners, and what the various codes of ethics and types of professional guidance say.

These guidelines on HIV confidentiality and disclosure were developed to help clinical psychologists where HIV-positive clients have not disclosed their status to their sexual partners and there is a significant risk for HIV transmission. They have also been developed to assist clinical psychologists when clients believe they have contracted HIV under these circumstances.

This 2009 booklet costs £4.70 to people who are not members of the British Psychological Association.