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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.
From the gleaming airport malls of Beijing to the grittier markets of Yunnan, Asia Catalyst traveled in China to work with local partners on strategic planning and budgeting. On this trip, we spent a few days with Phoenix in Yunnan drafting their plans and budget for the next quarter, and providing some computer training. Phoenix members also lit candles on mid-Autumn festival to commemorate two members who recently died of HIV/AIDS.
By Meg Davis
The crisis of the HIV/AIDS pandemic is creating incentive and space for mobilization of marginalized communities, and
otherwise restrictive states such as China and Myanmar (Burma) are largely allowing it. In recent months, both Chinese and Burmese sex worker-led organizations have moved into the public eye.
By Mike Frick
From June through early August, I
helped Asia Catalyst’s partner organization, Phoenix, to train five volunteers
in research and rights documentation skills. Phoenix is an NGO that serves
women living with HIV/AIDS – many of them sex workers and drug users — in
Gejiu, Yunnan Province, China. The five participating volunteers on our
research team are all former drug users, and several of them also work as sex
workers. Our goal was to build their capacity to conduct the kind of research
that can inform advocacy and make a difference in the lives of the community
Phoenix serves.
The International AIDS Conference also launched the Vienna Declaration, (中文https://www.viennadeclarationchinese.com/), a statement signed by hundreds of doctors, experts and NGOs calling for decriminalization of drug use. A number of speakers, panels and protests at the conference also
called for the decriminization of HIV transmission and commercial sex work. A growing body of scientific evidence presented at the meeting shows that decriminalization would be consistent not only with a rights-based approach to the epidemic but also with science-based public health principles.
However, there is some confusion regarding the differences between “decriminalization” and “legalization” – so
here is a brief explanation.
国际艾滋病大会上共有数百名医生签署了新发起的《维也纳宣言》，专家们和非营利性组织呼吁取消对使用毒品定罪。出席会议的许多发言人、专门小组和抗议者也呼吁取消对传播艾滋病与性工作的定罪。会上，越来越多的证据表明除罪化不仅和从权力角度出发抗击疾病的方式相一致，也与从科学的角度出发的公众健康规则相一致。
然而，在合法化与除罪化之间仍然有些令人困惑的地方，下面是对此的简单解释：
