[COMMENTARY] 10,000 Smiles: A Chinese Campaign Against HIV/AIDS Discrimination

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By Yu Fangqiang
 
Chinese civil rights activist Yu Fangqiang tells the story behind his “10,000 Smiles” campaign, which collected over 12,000 photos of people holding up signs in English and Chinese with slogans against HIV-related discrimination such as “People with HIV/AIDS have the right to work.” The photos included a diverse group of individuals including government officials, students, people on the street, and U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke, and they were shared online through social media and news reports in China’s official news organ, People’s Daily.
 

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[ANNOUNCEMENT] Abstract Submission System Open! Harm Reduction 2013 in Vilnius, Lithuania 第23界国际减低伤害大会开始接收摘要投稿

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The 23rd International Harm Reduction Conference will be held on 9th – 12th of June, 2013, in Vilnius, Lithuania, and is being organised by Harm Reduction International in partnership with the Eurasian Harm Reduction Network. The official conference theme is ‘The Value’s of Harm Reduction‘, which will provide focus on the urgent need to ensure sufficient political and financial support to address the HIV epidemic driven by injecting drug use in many parts of the world, and well as the ethical basis of the harm reduction philosophy.

第23界国际降低伤害大会将于2013年6月9-12日|为在立陶宛首都 维尔纽斯召开。大会主题为”降低伤害的价值”，主要关注世界各地毒品注射而导致的艾滋病感染问题，呼吁针对该问题号召全球政治与经济支持。

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[COMMENTARY] Chinese Drug Users Have to Protect Our Own Rights 成瘾者：维护自身权益还得靠你自己

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By Wang Wen 
王文 
Recently, I read a short piece with no headline that was posted to an email group. The author, one of our fellow drug users in Kaiyuan City, Yunnan Province, said that when he took a make-up test for one part of his driving license exam on September 6, the local traffic management department told him that his license has been revoked based on The Notice about Strengthening the Management of Automobile Driving for Drug Addicts. Because he had been detained by the local police station on August 21, 2012 for using drugs, the police labeled him as an unreformed drug user. 
日前我从一个邮件组里看到一篇没有标题的短文，里面讲述了9月6日云南省开远市一位成瘾者同伴去补考驾驶证的一项科目，被当地交管部门告知，他2012年8月21日在某地吸食毒品被当地公安机关某派出所抓获，所以，已经将他定为吸毒成瘾未戒除人员，他的驾驶证已经按照公安部《关于加强吸毒人员驾驶机动车管理的通知》吊销了。

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[NEWS] National Day of Persons With Disabilities Celebrated With Innovative Advocacy in China

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Only wheelchair entrance to Zhengzhou Railway Station. Photo courtesy of Yirenping.
While International Day of Persons with Disabilities is not until December 3rd, China celebrated its own National Persons With Disabilities Day on August 11th. With the help of civil rights group Yirenping, innovative advocacy activities were held around the country to draw attention to disability discrimination. Below are a few pictures and descriptions of the events:

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[COMMENTARY] South Korea Gets Unearned Praise, Again, For Lifting HIV Travel Ban

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By Ken Oh

At the opening ceremony for the 2012 International AIDS Conference in Washington DC, UNAIDS chief Michel Sidibe announced that the South Korea had just lifted its travel restrictions on people living with HIV. The announcement met with a wave of applause. Hours before the speech, Kim Bong-hyun, Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs, had announced that the South Korea had lifted travel restrictions on HIV-positive travelers to the country. There were only two problems with this momentous announcement: first, South Korea had made more or less the same announcement in 2010; and second, it is not clear that South Korea has made any of the needed legal reforms since then. Numerous discriminatory restrictions on visitors living with HIV/AIDS remain in place.

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