[COMMENTARY] A Second Look at Korea’s “Lifting” of its HIV Travel Ban

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Thumbnail image for KoreaAIDS.jpg
By Ken Oh

Can rules be changed when they aren’t changed?
What may appear to be a purely metaphysical question is creating some
real-world confusion in the Republic of Korea.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recently applauded South Korea’s announced lifting
of its entry ban on HIV-positive foreigners. UNAIDS executive director
Michel Sidibe also extolled the move, effective January 1, as an important step
in the effort to realize the global freedom of movement for people living with
HIV.  But the reality appears to be more
complex.

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[REPORT] Impressions of the China Sex Workers’ Network Training in Qingdao

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中国性工作者网络青岛培训有感

By Zhang Lan and Li Man

From January 14-16,
2010, the Chinese Sex Workers’ Network held its second national training
workshop for sex work NGOs in Qingdao. The purpose was to help build the
capacity of staff at sex work NGOs, as well as targeted training for staff on
project management, institution building, project expansion, and so on.

2010年1月14日—16日，中国性工作者网络在青岛举行了全国性工作者机构的第二次培训，这是对机构工作人员的能力建设，同时也有针对性的培训工作人员一些关于项目管理/机构建设/拓展项目/法律问题等等。

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[COMMENTARY] Is Two Times a Trend? The U.S. and South Korea Lift HIV Travel Restrictions

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By Ken Oh

  

Last Monday, the United Nations issued a statement applauding the United States and the Republic of Korea for lifting travel bans on people living with HIV/AIDS(PLWHA).  The US ban had been in effect for 22 years, and the South Korean ban had been similarly entrenched.  Michel Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS, hailed the parallel policy changes as “a victory for human rights on two sides of the globe”.  

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[RESOURCE] News and Information on Sex Work Online

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Check out the new website launched by Paulo Longo Research Institute in honor of the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (yes, there really is a day for everything), www.plri.org. The site looks like a good resource for news and information on sex work, harm reduction and human rights issues. A recent wander through the site turned up these things:

 

  • A report from Pakistan’s National AIDS Control Program last spring on how human rights abuses by the police are fuelling the spread of AIDS;
  • A report from Cambodia on how the response to trafficking led to a crackdown on sex workers with a lot of negative fallout;
  • Articles on trafficking and migration from various perspectives;
  • Articles on research methods and ethics that aim to move “toward innovative, interdisciplinary and participatory frameworks that reflect sex worker priorities and perspectives”.

 

The site was just launched yesterday, so there aren’t a huge number of entries yet; hopefully these will be filled out as the site develops. It would also be great if links below the abstracts led you right to the article – some just link to the host website. Put this together with AIDSLEX, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network’s new site on AIDS law, and finding resources on AIDS and human rights online just got a little bit easier.

[COMMENTARY] A Patent Pool: What Are the Risks?

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Today and tomorrow, December 14-15, the executive board of UNITAID will vote on whether to move forward with plans for a patent pool. A patent pool is a consortium of companies that share a license to a particular product or technology. In this case, manufacturers of AIDS drugs would give a limited number of generic manufacturers the right to produce those drugs. Competition between the generic manufacturers would then drive down the price of drugs in countries where many people currently cannot afford AIDS drugs.

Controversy has roiled over the patent pool idea since some have suggested that middle-income countries should be excluded. A lot of those countries are in Asia; see this letter from APN+, the network of people living with HIV in Asia, which clearly lays out the issues.

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