[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part of his driving license exam on September 6, the local traffic management department told him that his license has been revoked based on The Notice about Strengthening the Management of Automobile Driving for Drug Addicts.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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[JOB ANNOUNCEMENT] Coordinator, Women of APN+

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Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (APN+) is seeking a woman to coordinate the activities of its women working group (WAPN+) in the Asia Pacific Region. Based in Bangkok this challenging post will involve working with a dedicated team of women living with HIV in the region and APN+ secretariat and its team. A willingness and proven commitment to working for women living with HIV and people living with and affected by HIV in general is essential for a successful candidate.

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[COMMENTARY] Where Are the Key Affected Populations at the International AIDS Conference?

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By Sara L.M. Davis 

 
Background 
This spring, when the International AIDS Society announced the program for AIDS 2012, the big HIV/AIDS conference that recently concluded in Washington D.C., the MSM Global Fund expressed concern that “only a fraction of high-quality abstracts” from men who have sex with men (MSM) had been accepted. Other activists and networks representing Key Affected Populations (KAPs) concurred in emails sent to the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) list that they too felt they were being excluded from the program.

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