1 March, 2006March 2006
International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers
On 28 April, the trade union movement remembers over two million workers who die and millions more who are injured, or who fall sick each year due to unsafe, unhealthy or unsustainable work and workplaces.
The slogan for this year’s 28 April Commemoration Day is “Union Workplaces – Safe Workplaces” and the selected themes are: The Global Union Ban Asbestos Campaign, HIV/AIDS – workplace aspects and implementation of programme response, and ILO Conventions and Instruments that relate to Occupational Health and Safety.
Unions the world over are called upon to mobilise workers to seek government and employer support of a total ban of asbestos; to promote action on HIV/ADS as a workplace issue and to convince the next G8 summit to establish a permanent working party on HIV/AIDS; and to encourage governments to ratify key ILO occupational health and safety instruments.
A 28 April guide, issued by the Global Unions, can be accessed here. The backgrounder provides a history of 28 April and points to a wide variety of activities that trade unions can implement on the day itself. Specifically on HIV/AIDS, we draw your attention to the trade union country profiles. these can be found here.
New UNAIDS Website
UNAIDS has launched a new version of its website complete with a new navigation, branding and logo www.unaids.org. The website, which will also be available in French, Spanish and Russian, provides content specifically chosen for each audience group: business and labour; civil society; donors; media; people living with HIV/AIDS; policy-makers; researchers; the UN family; and women, as well as an easier more intuitive navigation structure.
The new focus of the website is to include all the relevant documentation and publications but also to highlight the impact of UNAIDS’ work through its cosponsors and partners. Each of the new sections provides additional background information, relevant publications and links to outside sources.
At www.unaids.org/en/mediacentre/newsletter you can find the new UNAIDS quarterly newsletter. The first issue features a letter from the UNAIDS Executive Director, information on a regional consultation on universal access in Latin America and UNAIDS support to Kenya. Future issues will be available in French, Spanish and Russian. Subscriber information is available online at www.unaids.org/Services/Subscribe.aspx.
World AIDS Campaign Calls for Greater Accountability
Governments and international agencies are coming under pressure to answer for the specific HIV and AIDS commitments and promises they have made. In a new report, the World AIDS Campaign (WAC) closely examines statements, commitments and declarations made by governments and intergovernmental organisations in the past five years, and asks how they hold up under scrutiny as genuine promises.
The WAC Report, entitled “Promises, Promises ….” reveals the growing gap between what governments say they will do about HIV and AIDS and what is actually achieved. It argues that the most significant promises were made during the special session of the UN General Assembly in June 2001 when the Declaration of Commitment was solemnly adopted by all member states of the UN.
A review of the progress on the Declaration will be made at a special session in June 2006 (see e-bulletin No. 5, February 2006). For the full WAC report, go to www.worldaidscampaign.org.
Pakistan Labour Federation Holds Seminar
The Pakistan Labour Federation organised a one-day seminar in collaboration with UNAIDS on the responsibilities of trade union leaders in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Atia Saleem, Chairperson of PFL’s Women’s Wing, stressed that HIV/AIDS should not be an issue discussed only once a year.
From the first cases reported in 1987, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS has soared. Trade unions, with their presence at the workplace, have an important role to play in implementing anti-discrimination policies and they can contribute to home and community care.
(Source: PLF News Release)
Generic Drugs
A deal between Bristol-Myers Squibb and two generic drug makers (Aspen Pharmacare in South Africa and Emcure Pharmaceuticals in India) will allow cheaper versions of its newest AIDS drug to be made available in sub-Saharan Africa and India. The agreement includes the transfer of technology covering manufacture, testing, packaging, storage and handling of the drug’s active ingredient.
(Source: Business Day, Johannesburg, 17 February 2006)
Product RED to Fight AIDS in Africa
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Bono announced Product RED, an economic initiative designed to deliver a sustainable flow of private sector money to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM). Leading brands have made a commitment to channel a portion of profits from sales of specially-designed RED products to the GFATM to support AIDS programmes in Africa with a focus on women and children.
The GFATM has welcomed this new initiative. Through RED and other initiatives it hopes to increase the private sector share of income from less than one percent currently to ten percent or more in the long term. Nelson Mandela added, “We must all come together in supporting the Global Fund and the fight against AIDS. RED carries the promise of capturing the world’s attention to do just that and I applaud RED and its partners for their vision and commitment.”
Go to www.joinred.com to find out more.
Joint publication on co-investment and public-private partnerships (PPP)
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), the Global Business Coalition on AIDS (GBC), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), the ILO and the World Bank have joined forces to produce “Making Co-investment a Reality – Strategies and Experiences.” The publication explains how co-investment can strengthen HIV/AIDS workplace programmes and extend them into the community. It gives examples and lessons learned on PPP and co-investment.
The publication can be accessed at
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/trav/aids
/publ/gtzgbccoinvest.pdf.
Update from ILOAIDS
At the beginning of the year, ILOAIDS has released a number of new publications. Most important of these is the booklet “Workplace Action on HIV/AIDS – How to Access Funds at the National Level,” which you can find at http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/trav
/aids/publ/resmob.pdf.
The booklet contains a set of fact sheets to help workers’ and employers’ organisations identify sources of funding and understand the mechanisms necessary in order to apply for them.
A complementary guidance note for proposal writing is in preparation. This will be posted on the ILOAIDS website www.ilo.org/aids, where you can also find the other recently released publications such as “The Impact of HIV/AIDS on the Labour Force in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Preliminary Assessment,” and “ILO/AIDS Brief on Women, Girls, HIV/AIDS and the World of Work,” which is now also available in French and Spanish.
Reminder: In the first issue of our e-bulletin, October 2005, we drew your attention to the ILOAIDS 24-hour News Service. You can register under http://campo.ilo.org/cmdb-access and indicate your language preference. For up-to-date daily news on HIV/AIDS and the world of work this new website is highly recommended (it will take you no more than 3 minutes to register).
This ICEM HIV-AIDS Newsletter – How to Subscribe or Translate?
To subscribe to the e-bulletin, send an email to [email protected]. Please put “subscribe ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin” in the subject line.
Unfortunately, the e-bulletin can only be published in English. For a free automated (non-ICEM) translation of this HIV-AIDS bulletin into other languages, you may want to try http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr or http://www.google.com/language_tools and insert the following URL into the window “Translate a Web page“: /?id=72&doc=1673.