January 2009 Archives

This week's blog entry is an open letter from AIDS activists Li Xige and Tian Xi calling on the National People's Congress to appoint people with HIV/AIDS as representatives. The authors invoke Party quotes to support their argument. The demand (which comes all the way at the end) breaks new ground. Currently, there are no HIV-positive representatives in China's Congress - or, that is, none that we know of.

What does an Obama administration mean for advocates of human rights in China? As the President and Secretary of State unpack their boxes in their new offices, this has become a favorite subject of debate at China human rights gatherings.

Word has it that China may finally be about to provide second-line treatment to some people with HIV/AIDS.

On a recent trip to China, people with AIDS told AC that roughly one in five of the people they knew living with HIV were at the point where they needed second-line treatment. Duan Jun, an activist from Henan province, said that roughly 40 percent of the people he knew needed second-line. Those numbers are deeply worrying. Just a year ago, we translated a letter from a group of Chinese AIDS activists demanding second-line treatment immediately.

Mark Heywood with Korekata AIDS Law Center in Beijing

We're still quite excited about the success of Mark Heywood's trip to China last month.

Mark is the director of the South African AIDS Law Project, and a co-founder of Treatment Action Coalition -- two groundbreaking groups working on AIDS and human rights. He's also chair of the U.N. Reference Group on AIDS and Human Rights. But not quite your typical UNocrat. Asked to deliver a keynote address to the U.N. High-Level Meeting on AIDS last June, Mark agreed, but did it wearing a hipper-than-your-mama black "HIV positive" t-shirt and shades. And he roundly denounced the Chinese government for imprisoning AIDS activist Hu Jia (bucking U.N. protocol that prohibits countries being criticized by name - which raises the question - exactly what are we all doing here again?). Cheers, of course, from the Chinese civil society delegation at the back of the room.

Welcome to the blog for Asia Catalyst. This is a space we'll be using to share news and information that relates to our work. Most of what you see here will be about AIDS and human rights in China -but from time to time we'll be posting on other interesting developments in the human rights movement in Asia.

Posts here are written by Sara (Meg) Davis, Asia Catalyst's founder/director, and by our collective of consultants, volunteers, graduate interns, and passing friends. As of January 2009, our intern/volunteer group includes:

Ken Oh, Asia Report coordinator
Carol Wang, China program coordinator
Lauren A. Burke
Josh Greenstein
Gisa Hartmann
Anton Muhajir
Oliver Dinh
Garrett Traub