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13 November, 2009ICEM Seeks Involvement on World AIDS Day, 1 December
In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we call again on ICEM affiliates to get involved in activities on World AIDS Day, 1 December. We report on, among other items, on the Sub-Sahara Africa Regional Workshop in Johannesburg, and we take up the debate on whether AIDS is still exceptional.
The ICEM Calls on its Affiliates to Contribute to this e-bulletin
ICEM affiliates are already engaged in a wide range of HIV/AIDS activities. To spread the information on new agreements, awareness, and prevention campaigns, and educational activities, affiliates and project coordinators are invited to send news and information to [email protected]. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome.
This is the 50th issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin. There is no reason to celebrate. Much has been done by ICEM affiliates. Readers will have noticed that for more than two years now, news from ICEM affiliates on their HIV/AIDS activities and from the ICEM itself has covered the first pages of this e-bulletin.
Much more needs to be done. We have put the workplace, where our affiliates can make a difference, in the forefront of awareness and prevention efforts. We will continue the fight with our limited means and we hope that more partners will join us.
African Regional HIV/AIDS Workshop Reviews Activities, Charts Way Forward
How do traditional healers fit into the prevention, treatment, and support of infected and affected people? What are the latest developments in treatment therapies? How do peer educators respond to still widespread myths on HIV and AIDS? These were among the issues debated by 23 participants, of whom 11 were women, from 14 Sub-Saharan African countries at the Regional HIV/AIDS Workshop, which took place in Johannesburg from 9-11 November.
At the outset of the workshop, participants, all national HIV/AIDS coordinators in their respective countries, reported on their work. New ideas and innovative interventions stirred much debate among participants and contributed to the learning process among them. Successful campaigns were presented by national coordinators Charlotte Nguessan, Côte d’Ivoire, and Afolabi Olawala, Nigeria, and inspired participants were encouraged to follow these examples.
Campaigning will be a focus for the ICEM HIV/AIDS project in 2010, especially Know-Your-Status campaigns as the low uptake of voluntary counselling and testing still poses one of the biggest barriers on prevention and treatment.
A number of countries also made good use of a special small grant for material production. Unions now have their own basic leaflets to enforce their awareness and prevention efforts.
Working groups on training for awareness and prevention, work organisation, job security and job accommodation, voluntary counselling and testing and confidentiality came up with suggestions and conclusions for union action and collective bargaining. Similarly, the implications of new treatments on negotiations were discussed in working groups.
With half of the participants being women, gender played a prominent role in the workshop. Their roles inside their careers was emphasised. The impact of their multiple roles on job performance and continued employment may discriminate against women. Experience from different countries also shows that women are more interested to know their status and are more active in support networks.
World AIDS Day 2009: A Call for ICEM Affiliates to Join the Campaign
As with every year at this time, World AIDS Day will be held on 1 December. In the last issue of this newsletter we urged ICEM affiliates to get involved in the campaigns carried out during World AIDS Day. This is the last call on ICEM affiliates to plan their participation in national activities.
The theme of this year’s World AIDS Day is “Universal Access and Human Rights.” Campaign material is designed with the “I AM” theme, adopting the key slogans: I am accepted; I am safe; I am getting treatment; I am well and I am living my rights.
Supporting material – four posters and two postcards – has been made available by the World AIDS Campaign. These can be downloaded from their website www.worldaidscampaign.org.
Is AIDS Exceptional?
The idea that AIDS is exceptional is no longer going unchallenged. Critics calling for an end to “exceptionalism” have argued that lowered estimates of HIV infections signal a time to return to a “normalised” response to the epidemic rather than a response to a global emergency. This would, of course, have far reaching consequences on funding.
The Second Independent Evaluation of UNAIDS underscores that AIDS exceptionalism remains a valid concept. It argues, among others, that the epidemic is exceptional in the magnitude of its impact on development in many countries, especially because of its impact on working adults. It is exceptional in its association with politically sensitive topics, such as sex and drugs, and with stigmatised groups such as sex workers and injecting drug users. In highlighting the continued importance of UNAIDS, the report stresses that addressing HIV and AIDS is not confined to the health sector.
(Source: information provided by Robert E. Lovelace, HIV/AIDS Consultant based in Washington and Advisor to the Global Union AIDS Programme)
HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Russia out of Control
Speaking ahead of an international conference on AIDS in Moscow, the head of the International AIDS Society, Robin Gorna, urged Russia to do more to prevent the spread of HIV among an estimated two million drug users. It is estimated that there are now at least one million people infected with HIV in Russia. This represents a dramatic increase over the past decade.
The vast majority are people under the age of 30. Most were infected because they share needles for injecting heroin. To give drug addicts substances such as methadone as an alternative is illegal in Russia, which also does not finance any needle exchange programmes.
(Source: BBC News, 28 October)
Patent Pool Could Ease HIV Drug Prices
Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) has launched an email campaign to pressure major pharmaceutical companies to share their patent rights of certain antiretroviral drugs. The organisation is urging the companies to release their patents into a collective pool that will increase access and affordability to treatment in developing countries. This is because companies using the patents can then develop generic versions.
At least five million people living with HIV, and who need life-saving treatment, still do not have access to it. UNITAD, the international drug purchasing agency, will be in the forefront of the project, as it will be in establishing the patent pool for these HIV drugs.
(Source: Inter Press Service, 1 0ctober)
Important Changes in Indian CCM
Earlier this year, the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) in India made important changes to its composition. When the terms of office of the old CCM expired, a decision was taken to expand the size of the CCM from 33 to 40 members.
While keeping the number of central and state government seats unchanged, this made it possible to increase the number of seats for civil society from five to eight and for the private sector from two to five. Of these five seats, three are to be taken by corporations. The selection process is to be conducted by the three Indian business coalitions.
Comment: While the editor of this e-bulletin welcomes the inclusion of corporations in the CCM, it is to be regrettable that the opportunity was not used to also include representatives of workers’ organisations in the CCM.
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 108, 27 October. GFO is a free service of Aidspan (www.aidspan.org). To receive GFO, send an email to [email protected].
Obama Lifts Ban on US Entry for HIV-positive People
President Barack Obama lifted a 22-year old ban on allowing people infected with the AIDS virus into the US on 2 November. He made the announcement in signing an extension of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Act, which provides for education, prevention, and treatment programmes for US HIV patients.
“We lead the world when it comes to helping stem the AIDS pandemic – yet we are one of only a dozen countries that bar people with HIV from entering our country,” he said. “If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it,” he added.
(Source: Reuters, 30 October)
Labour Advocacy Toolkit
The World AIDS Campaign (WAC) secured funding from UNAIDS to produce mobilisation kits for four constituencies including youth, people living with HIV, and faith-based organisations. The fourth kit reaches out to labour. The kit presented the Global Union AIDS Programme with the opportunity to create a publication that serves a number of purposes, including drawing attention to the 2010 goal of achieving universal access.
The kit, with the subtitle, “Organising to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support,” is a tool for the country-based affiliates of the Global Unions to assess national HIV and AIDS responses with the aim of identifying gaps that labour is uniquely positioned to fill. It puts forward a structured process to plan campaigns to increase the role of labour in national responses and gain access to the required resources to do the work.
The Labour Advocacy Toolkit was written by Robert E Lovelace who is an advisor to the Global Union AIDS Programme. The ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin will advise readers when and where to obtain the toolkit when it becomes available.
News from Global Union Federations
In its October Newsletter on Education for All and HIV/AIDS Prevention in Schools (EFAIDS – www.ei-ie.org/efaids), the Education International (EI) reported, among other items, of the extension of the EFAIDS programme to Papua New Guinea and the implementation of the programme in post-conflict West Africa.
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) www.itfglobal.org reports in its HIV/AIDS Update 74 of 15 October on the prominent role HIV/AIDS played at the Road Transport Section Conference in Uganda, the first international road transport conference held in Africa. The first pilot project on HIV and AIDS was started in Uganda ten years ago.
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