[NEWS] UNAIDS China Chief Speaks Out on Real-Name HIV Testing

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In a brief interview with 新京报 Mark Stirling, Country Coordinator for UNAIDS China, points out that confidentiality is the key to the success of HIV testing policies. Rampant discrimination is one of the key factors that discourage people from taking HIV tests. Unfortunately, institutional discrimination by health care providers and employers are widespread in China, and many key affected populations (sex workers, injection drug users, and men who have sex with men) also face stigma related to their identities. Stirling observes that while public education on non-discrimination is important, the revision of discriminatory laws and policies is also essential in order to reduce institutional discrimination. 
Stirling points out that in one Beijing community testing center, 128 out of 351 people surveyed decided not to take the HIV test after being told they would have to give their real names.  He calls for support for HIV testing by community-based organizations, especially as a way to reach key affected populations. You can read the full text of the interview (in Chinese) here.
Please join us in signing the petition here to call for stronger confidentiality protections and stronger protections against discrimination.

[NEWS] UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights Statement on Crisis of HIV Funding

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Geneva, 30 January 2012 – The November 2011 announcement of the cancellation of the 11th round of funding of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria because of the Fund’s financial difficulties presents the international community with both a health and a human rights crisis.  Since its first round of funding in 2002, the Global Fund has played an indispensable role in advancing the health and human rights goals of the global HIV response.

The Global Fund’s financial difficulties are part of a broader global HIV funding crisis. This funding crisis is the most important human rights issue in the HIV response at this time. Paradoxically, funding is being flat-lined or reduced just as science, medicine and programmes are providing the tools for success against HIV.

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[UPDATE] Back from the Asia-Pacific Regional Consultation on Universal Access

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By Meg Davis

Asian NGOs and government representatives met in Bangkok from March 29-31 at the Asia-Pacific Regional
Consultation on Universal Access. They consulted together to make recommendations on how to ensure universal access to AIDS treatment – one of the Millennium Development Goals.  This time, human rights was included, and it was fascinating to see the process and participate in it.

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[NEWS] UNAIDS: Seeking Practitioners in HIV and Human Rights

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The XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna, whose theme was “Right Here,
Rights Now,” provided a unique opportunity to bring together many people from
around the world who share an interest in and commitment to a human
rights-based response to HIV/AIDS.

As a follow-up to AIDS 2010 and as part of a larger effort to support greater
collaboration among key people working on HIV, human rights and law, UNAIDS and
the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network have partnered in order to develop an
international roster of practitioners with experience in HIV and human rights.

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[NEWS] China’s First Forum on AIDS and Human Rights

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On July 5th, China convened the first meeting of the Red Ribbon Forum,
a gathering of government officials, NGOs and experts to discuss AIDS and human
rights concerns. Mark Heywood, the chair of the UNAIDS Theme Group on HIV/AIDS
and Human Rights, delivered a speech calling for more space for civil society. During
an intense – and in China, unprecedented – discussion period, civil society
representatives raised frank concerns about a range of human rights issues,
including ongoing restrictions on civil society, and demands for compensation
for the blood scandal that transmitted HIV to thousands of villagers. The full
text of Heywood’s speech follows. 

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