[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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[REPORT] Washington, D.C.: What We’ll Remember from AIDS 2012

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Meg Davis and Lanlan at AIDS 2012 in the Global Village.

This year Asia Catalyst sent four Chinese activists and ten staff members and volunteers to the AIDS 2012 conference in D.C. Here are a few short reflections of and pictures from our time.

  • Our session on civil society in China was a really great, thoughtful, lively and overall optimistic discussion between three rising young advocates, Zheng Huang (China Sex Worker Organization Network), Yuan Wenli (China Network of Women Against HIV/AIDS), and Shen Tingting (Korekata AIDS Law Center). I only wish it had been on a platform where the speakers could have reached a larger audience.

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