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11 July, 2006July 2006
Affiliates in Colombia Organise First Seminar on HIV/AIDS
ICEM affiliates in Colombia organised their first seminar on HIV/AIDS and the workplace in cooperation with UNAIDS and the Ministry of Social Protection.
The seminar concluded that there was a lack of consistent campaigning on the part of companies and also unions. To overcome ignorance, discrimination and stigmatisation participants recommended including clauses in collective agreements and drawing up workplace policies based on the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work.
The seminar formulated an action plan which includes the formation of workplace committees, workshops, information material, revision of collective agreements and gender-oriented programmes. Each union is to nominate a focal point to coordinate implementation of the action plan.
Company representatives were invited to the seminar but only Carbones del Cerrejón, which represents the interests of BHP Billiton, Glencore and Anglo American, participated.
Mongolia Union Concerned about Increase in Reported HIV Infections
In a report to the ICEM's Asia-Pacific Regional Committee, the Mongolia Mining and Energy Union expressed concern about the recent increase in HIV prevalence in the country. Despite the still very low prevalence rate, the potential for a further increase due to unsafe sex, high infection rates among migrant workers and mobile traders and lack of education among young people is high.
Workplace prevention programmes are at the initial stage in the country. Only recently, trade unions organised a national seminar in collaboration with the employers’ federation and the ILO on the introduction of workplace prevention programmes.
A Quarter of a Century of AIDS
The world has changed in 25 years since physicians saw the earliest cases of AIDS in hospitals in the United States and in Africa. The world was slow to recognise the gravity of the new health crisis and in the years in which AIDS remained off the political agenda, the infection took a foothold that it has not yet relinquished.
Over the last quarter century nearly 65 million people were infected with HIV and an estimated 25 million have already died of AIDS.
Today it is estimated that close to 40 million live with HIV – yet the vast majority are unaware of their status. More than 4 million became newly infected with HIV and almost 3 million died in 2005.
With the establishment of the WHO Global Programme on AIDS in 1987 and UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) in 1996, the United Nations moved to address the epidemic not as an isolated health problem, but as a human development issue.
At the 2001 Special Session of the UN General Assembly on AIDS (UNGASS), 189 nations agreed that HIV/AIDS was a national and international development issue of the highest priority, signing the historic Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS that promised innovative responses, coordinated efforts and accountability for progress against the epidemic.
The Declaration set a comprehensive list of time-bound targets to support the Millennium Development Goal 6 of halting, and beginning to reverse the epidemic by 2015.
In 2003, UNAIDS and the WHO promoted the 3 by 5 Initiative (3 million people living with HIV/AIDS on treatment by the end of 2005). Although the initiative did not meet its target, it focused attention on treatment and increased the number from 400,000 in December 2003 to 1.3 million in December 2005.
When new targets such as universal access by 2010 are set it is hoped that these are not empty promises but there is a real commitment behind them which includes the massive financial resources required.
A real breakthrough in funding came with the launch of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) in December 2002. More than 20% of all international financing to fight HIV/AIDS is currently channelled through the Global Fund, which has approved close to 400 grants to government and civil society partners in 131 countries.
Funds contributed and pledged to the Global Fund by donors totalled US$8.5 billion. But even such a large amount pales when resource requirements for 2007 are estimated to be US$18 billion, while resources expected to be available from all sources are estimated at US$10 billion. Despite substantial increases in donor funding, huge gaps remain.
(Source: UNAIDS 2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic – see below. Read also: Newsweek, 5 June "AIDS at 25")
UNAIDS Publishes Report on the Epidemic
As reported in the June issue of ICEM's e-bulletin, UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, launched the 2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic on the eve of a United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS. This special edition, marking the 10th anniversary of UNAIDS, contains the most in-depth data from countries to date, based on progress reports from 126 countries as well as independent data from more than 30 civil society organisations.
The Report cites positive trends, and states that the epidemic appears to be slowing down globally but new infections are continuing to increase in certain regions and countries. The Report also shows that important progress has been made in country responses, including increases in funding and access to treatment and decreases in HIV prevalence among young people in some countries over the past five years.
It states, however, that HIV/AIDS remains an exceptional threat. The response is very diverse with some countries doing well on treatment but poorly on HIV prevention efforts and vice-versa.
An estimated 38.6 million people are living with HIV worldwide. This is lower than the 40.3 million given in the UNAIDS December 2005 Epidemic Update. The lower estimate is partly due to genuine declines in HIV prevalence in several countries. However, most of the differences are due to increased availability of reliable data.
Rising mortality have also caused HIV prevalence to level off although the numbers of people living with HIV have continued to rise, due to population growth and antiretroviral treatment.
The report can be accessed at www.unaids.org. It includes profiles of the 126 countries surveyed.
(Source: UNAIDS Press Release, 30 May 2006)
United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS
Unlike the 2001 UN General Assembly Session on HIV/AIDS, relatively few world leaders attended the United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS which took place in New York from 29 May to 2 June.
Civil society organisations have criticised the final declaration of this meeting. Difference over prevention strategies, such as abstinence and condom use, intellectual property rights, and the naming of vulnerable groups have resulted in a weaker declaration and in serious omissions.
In deference to Muslim and conservative Latin and Vatican opposition, the Declaration refers only to “vulnerable groups” at risk for infection without naming sex workers, homosexuals, or intravenous drug users as in need of particular attention. Civil society also noted an insufficient commitment to women’s rights.
Global Fund Progress Report Shows Substantial Impact
Performance results from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria show that as of the end of April, 544,000 people have begun antiretroviral treatment through Global Fund-supported programmes – up from 384,000 six months ago.
Global Fund support for efforts to combat AIDS, TB and malaria account for 56% of the total US$5.4 million committed to date for programmes in 131 countries to fight the three diseases. Some 400 grants have been approved so far. Of the US$3 billion allocated to AIDS, half is dedicated to prevention activities while the other half is allocated to treatment.
In 2005, the Global Fund was responsible for an estimated 20% of all international funding in support of efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, and approximately two-thirds of global funding for programmes against TB and malaria.
What is encouraging is that civil society organisations are strong implementers as compared to government agencies, with 30% of their grants over-performing and the remaining 70% showing satisfactory performance.
There are strong indications that countries can drastically increase their national absorptive capacity by channelling more of its health spending through non-governmental and faith-based organisations and the private sector.
(Source: Global Fund Press Release, 29 June 2006)
Focus on the Caribbean
According to the UNAIDS Report (see above), AIDS-related illnesses are the leading cause of death for people aged 15 to 44 in the Caribbean, accounting for more than 27,000 deaths in 2005.
While the Bahamas, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti have contained the progress of HIV, Guyana has a serious epidemic underway.
The Caribbean remains the region most affected by HIV/AIDS after Africa. According to UNAIDS estimates 330,000 HIV-positive people were living in the Caribbean at the end of 2005, 51% of whom were women.
This status as second-most affected region masks substantial country differences in the extent and intensity of the epidemic. Prevalence rates range from 0.1% in Cuba to more than 2% in Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, and exceeding 3% in the Bahamas and Haiti. New infections among women are far surpassing those among men, ranging from twice the likelihood for teenage girls to be infected in Jamaica to six times in Trinidad and Tobago.
In the region fewer than one in four people needing antiretroviral drugs are actually receiving them.
(Source: UNAIDS 2006 Report as compiled by Medical News Today, 5 June 2006)
Global Unions Demand G8 Permanent Working Group on HIV/AIDS
In the run-up to the G8 Summit in St. Petersburg, 15-16 July, a Global Union delegation met Russian President Putin.
Among other items, they put forward the demand for a permanent Working Group on HIV/AIDS. At last year’s Summit in Gleneagles, there was a time-bound commitment to fighting the epidemic but since then there has not been a clear follow-up and monitoring mechanism to reach the objective of universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care by 2010.
The call for a permanent Working Group was also made at the ILO’s International Labour Conference in Geneva in June when Global Unions delivered letters to government, workers’ and employers’ delegations and to the Health Ministers gathered at the WHO annual World Health Assembly in May.
(Source: OECD-TUAC Press Release, 5 July and Global Union Statements)
International AIDS Conference
The ICEM abstract written for the International AIDS Conference, Toronto, Canada, 13 to 18 August, was accepted for a poster exhibition.
The ICEM was also invited to speak on “The importance of social dialogue and workers’ participation in public/private partnerships” at a Satellite Meeting Session with the theme: “From the workplace to the community – Co-investment to access prevention, treatment and care in public/private partnerships”.
ICEM Resources on HIV/AIDS
This is a reminder that HIV/AIDS materials are available on our website www.icem.org. You can download the ICEM Leaflet on HIV/AIDS as well as power point presentations and find links to other interesting websites and materials.
Latest addition is the HIV/AIDS Training Manual for Collective Bargaining. Written by the ICEM Africa Regional HIV/AIDS Coordinator Shirley Miller with input from the national coordinators from sub-Saharan Africa the manual is a rights-based practical guide for unionists to deal with HIV/AIDS at the workplace and bargain for clauses safeguarding against discrimination and victimisation. The manual can also be found in three different languages at:
English: /files/PDF/Key_issues_pdfs/
AIDS/0606ICEMHIVAIDSManualEN.pdf
French: /files/PDF/Key_issues_pdfs/
AIDS/0606ICEMHIVAIDSManualFR.pdf
Spanish: /files/PDF/Key_issues_pdfs/
AIDS/0606ICEMHIVAIDSManualSP.pdf