22 December, 2005January 2006
World AIDS Day 2005 - Keep the Promise
The global theme of World AIDS Day, 1 December 2005, was Stop AIDS – Keep the Promise. This refers in particular to the commitments made by Heads of State at the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS) in June 2001.
Global unions appealed to their affiliates and the millions of members organised by them to take “3 Minutes of Their Time” to make their promise. Governments and political leaders must be reminded of their forgotten promises and efforts must be reinvigorated to keep them.
At UNGASS, four years ago, 189 countries made the most significant AIDS promises and agreed, among other things, to stop mother-to-child transmission and to provide treatment to all those who need it. In most countries the targets will not be met.
At Gleneagles, in July 2005, the G8 leaders pledged “to develop and implement a package of HIV prevention, treatment and care, with the aim of as close as possible to universal access to treatment for all those who need it by 2010.” This must not remain a rhetorical statement. Action must follow so that the promise is not broken.
Organisations and individuals are urged to make their own promise at www.worldaidscampaign.org or www.worldaidscampaign.net/community. Make your promise now!
At the main ILO event in Geneva, which the ICEM Global HIV/AIDS Coordinator attended and at which the ICEM leaflet was distributed, the ILO Director General, Juan Somavia, said that the workplace must play a strategic role in the fight against HIV/AIDS. “It is a fight not only against the ravages of the disease but also against discrimination, intolerance, misconception and fear”.
Côte d’Ivoire Workers and Management Fight the HIV/AIDS Epidemic
Charlotte Nguessan, the President of the Shell C.I. HIV/AIDS committee and the ICEM National HIV/AIDS Coordinator, reports on initiatives within this company. Most of the people infected with HIV virus are between 15 and 49 – the economically active population. As a response Shell set up a joint committee with the union to fight HIV/AIDS by heightening awareness among workers, their families and the communities.
This takes place at all levels of the company and reaches out into the community. Examples include campaigns for the families of Shell employees, campaigns for petrol attendants and Shell shops throughout the country, for other partners such as fuel and gas contractors, campaigns for religious communities and the establishment of the Yamoussoukro Shell Institute to promote awareness primarily among youth. Recognising the specific vulnerability of women, a conference for Shell’s Women Workers was organised with the theme “Women and HIV: we are more vulnerable”.
The campaign consistently targets its constituencies through posters, leaflets, and flyers in canteen trays. It utilises mail message and video screening. Condoms are distributed in pay-slips and public toilets. The message is reinforced through bags and tee shirts distributed at the annual party.
Global Unions’ Action Against HIV/AIDS in 2006
On World AIDS Day, the global trade union movement announced a series of initiatives for 2006 in the fight against HIV/AIDS, ranging from campaigns and mobilisation action to activities in workplaces and lobbying of governments to get them to implement pledges they have made. Trade unions will focus on a series of global gatherings in 2006, including the G8, WHO, UN Commission on Sustainable Development and the UN General Assembly.
2006 will see the rollout of a series of workplace initiatives in countries, which are severely hit by the pandemic, following agreements with the International Employers’ Organisation and the WHO. A new leaflet “HIV/AIDS is a Human Rights Issue, Human Rights are Trade Union Issues” was launched on World AIDS Day and is available at www.global-unions.org.
UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Calls on Companies to Contribute
In a statement issued on World AIDS Day, Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa and former Canadian Ambassador to the UN, called on companies to contribute 0.7% of pre-tax profits annually to the Global Fund. He said that big multinational companies that have exacted such huge wealth from Africa’s mineral, diamond, gold, oil and other resources over decades and the pharmaceutical industry, which resisted the lowering of drug prices for an unconscionable length of time, should be targeted first.
He also addressed his call to the more than 200 companies that are members of the Global Business Coalition. Many of these companies provide antiretroviral drugs and make in-kind contributions or investments in research and training centres but the true expression of corporate social responsibility would be a 0.7% contribution to the Global Fund.
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 53, 11 December 2005 – www.aidspan.org/gfo)
Stephen Lewis is also the author of the book Race Against Time.
Global Fund – Continuation of Services
In its December meeting the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria decided to develop a policy to ensure continued funding for treatment-based grants when they are denied Phase 2 funding or they are approaching the end of their term. (Global Fund grants are approved for five years but can be suspended on the basis of a review after two years).
Concern had earlier been raised over the fate of the people on treatment when a grant is suspended. Comment: While this is an overdue commitment it has to be seen whether funds are available to implement such a policy.
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 54, 18 December 2005 – www.aidspan.org/gfo)
COSATU Joins TAC to Push for Treatment
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) joined activist group Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) to push for a new approach to AIDS in the country worst hit by the worldwide pandemic. In a joint statement with TAC and the South African Council of Churches COSATU said, “We lament the continued refusal of our national government to declare the seriousness of the epidemic and to mobilise a response on the scale that is needed”.
The new campaign, which was launched on World AIDS Day, is designed to more deeply involve unions, employers and churches in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The organisations demand that by the end of 2006 at least 200,000 AIDS patients are enrolled for anti-retroviral treatment – currently the figure is just over 70,000 people who receive treatment at government health facilities.
News from other Global Union Federations
The Education International (EI) marked World AIDS Day with an information session for the staff at its Brussels Head Office. EI affiliates all over the world organised events on issues of education and HIV/AIDS. Demands included a greater commitment of governments to distribute antiretrovirals.
(Source: EI AIDS Newsletter – www.ei-ie.org/aids)
The UNI Global Union graphical sector in southern and East Africa will use collective bargaining to tackle HIV/AIDS. Unions agreed to include a clause in future negotiations to establish a joint worker-employer response to improve education and prevention, to end discrimination and to upscale access to treatment. Access to treatment at work has also been negotiated by unions with employers in several other sectors in Burkina Faso, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire.
(Source: UNI Global Union – www.uniglobalunion.org - eBulletin December 2005)
Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Stories – Faces of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic
In collaboration with the International HIV/AIDS Alliance and Christian AID, the WHO has released on its HIV/AIDS website www.who.int/hiv “Voices of Hope” - photo stories of communities affected by HIV/AIDS. The photo stories of people living with HIV and AIDS in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America represent some of the real faces of the epidemic that, by the end of 2005, had infected an estimated 40.3 million people.
Update from ILOAIDS
There are two new titles (the last two) in the series of workplace action menus that the ILO has produced with UNAIDS and the World Economic Forum's Global Health Initiative. To complement Africa (in English and French) and Asia http://www.unaids.org/en/about+unaids/
partnerships/partnership+menus.asp), ILOAIDS now has Action against AIDS in the workplace for Latin America and the Caribbean (shortly also in Spanish), and a final global version with an overview of all regions, including North America and Europe.
This ICEM HIV-AIDS Newsletter – How to Subscribe or Translate?
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