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Phoenix (苦草工作室) is a local, grassroots Chinese organization that provides
services to sex workers living with HIV/AIDS. From June through October, 2010,
Phoenix conducted a community-driven research project to document discrimination
against women living with HIV/AIDS. The result is this report.
IKON protest, Wahyu is far left with raised arm. The banner reads “prison is not a
solution for drug addicts.” Photo courtesy IKON.
By Anton Muhajir
After three weeks of hospitalization, Bali
and Indonesia’s best-known drug user rights advocate I Gusti Ngurah Wahyunda
passed away in early March. Wahyu, 31 years old, was the founder of the
Indonesian Drug User Solidarity Association (IDUSA) and coordinator of Ikatan
Korban Napza (IKON), a network of drug victims in Bali.
I honor him as a
friend, activist, and an innovative fighter who built a movement to defend the
human rights of drug users.
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.
