From the Wall Street Journal Asia
By Mark Heywood and Sara L.M. Davis
China will observe World AIDS Day on Thursday with events in which Chinese leaders publicly embrace people living
with HIV/AIDS. But on every other day of the year, hundreds of thousands of Chinese living with HIV/AIDS are treated as second-class citizens.
Asia Catalyst is urging supporters and friends to give what you can to the Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (TNP+) in their urgent appeal for a disaster response.
According to TNP+, the floods in 26 provinces of Thailand which began in October 2011 have affected about 2 million people. In some towns and villages the water is as high as three meters above street level.
The members of the Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (TNP+) who live in those provinces are affected in many ways:
– homes and household equipment have been damaged, with water levels reaching the roofs of some properties
– equipment damaged
– farm land damaged
– cars and motorcycles under water
We were saddened to hear of the untimely passing of our colleague, teacher and friend, Wang Xiaoguang, one of the founders of Yunnan Daytop in China. Yunnan Daytop is a leader in China’s efforts to provide voluntary and supportive harm reduction services to people who use drugs, and in that role Wang Xiaoguang has been a consistent advocate for drug users and for Chinese grassroots NGOs that serve them. Asia Catalyst and other international agencies frequently called on Xiaoguang for his insights and advice, and we’ll be at a real loss without him to turn to.
Our (unofficial) translation of Daytop’s obituary for him follows, along with the Chinese original text.
Asia Catalyst
Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group protesters – Photo by Rico Gustav
By Karyn Kaplan
Kaplan’s electrifying essay on the human rights of drug users in Asia is excerpted from her plenary speech given at the
International Conference on AIDS in Asia/Pacific (ICAAP), Busan, South Korea, August 27, 2011 and reprinted from the Health and Human Rights Forum.
Here in Asia, home to more than half the world’s opiate users, more than 16 million drug users and at least 6.5 million injectors, where HIV prevalence among injectors is among the highest in the world, where the HIV epidemic is largely driven by unsafe injecting practices, where less than 10% of heroin injectors are on methadone, and where injectors can access an average of just two sterile syringes per month, we lack 90% of the resources necessary to provide the
essential harm reduction services necessary for realizing the right to health. But while resources are a significant challenge, I would argue that even when we have the resources, it does not ensure access.
By Yu Fangqiang
On July 27, 2010, a person living with HIV/AIDS in Anhui Province successfully filed China’s first case alleging employment discrimination on the basis of HIV status. Soon afterwards, a second case was filed in Sichuan Province. A year later, both cases were lost, and both plaintiffs filed appeals. Currently, the third plaintiff in an HIV-related employment discrimination case is preparing to file suit. In this article, lawyer Yu Fangqiang tells the personal story behind the historically important Anhui case.
