Compiled by Martin Flynn & Bruce Wainwright
Drive to expose HIV abuse and murder
A broad coalition of people living with HIV has started amassing evidence
of human rights violations against people living with HIV, ready for World
Aids Day 2006.
Foremost among the cases to be included will be that of the Jamaican Aids
activist Steve Harvey, abducted and shot dead in November last year. Jamaica
has become a by-word for homophobic violence where, according to Human Rights
Watch: “Police actively support homophobic violence, fail to investigate
complaints of abuse and arrest and detain [men] based on their alleged homosexual
conduct.”
In Honduras, Aids activist Amed Baraona was stabbed to death aged 25 and in
2004, Brian Williamson, founder of Jamaica’s gay rights movement, was
murdered. Meanwhile, China has recently announced that detainees with HIV
will be isolated in separate prisons and that mandatory nationwide testing
is being considered. In Swaziland, the country with the highest HIV prevalence
in the world, King Mswati III, the absolute monarch, cancelled World Aids
Day by royal decree. And in Zimbabwe, police halted a World Aids Day demonstration
and arrested 165 participants. Homosexuality is still considered a crime in
many African countries and in Nigeria,
‘unnatural’ acts such as sodomy, can be punished with up to 14
years in prison.
In the northern states of Nigeria, where Islamic shariah law has been adopted,
a conviction for sodomy can result in the death penalty. The consequence has
been to give added impetus to stigma and drive much sexual activity underground.
EU takes on US over abstinence-only HIV cash
The
US administration’s abstinence-focused approach to HIV prevention has
come under fire from the EU.
A strongly worded statement from 22 countries, led by the UK, said: “We
are profoundly concerned about the resurgence of partial or incomplete messages
on HIV prevention which are not grounded in evidence and have limited effectiveness.”
It calls on developing world governments to use every prevention tool, including
condoms, clean needles and sexual health clinics, to slow the spread of HIV.
Meanwhile, the US has pledged $15bn over five years to fight the virus. Most
of the new US cash is to be channelled through the President’s Emergency
Plan for Aids Relief and will come with conditions.
Two thirds of the money must go to pro-abstinence programmes, and is unavailable
to clinics that offer abortions or abortion counselling. The US, together
with countries such as Russia, also oppose provision of needles and syringes
for drug users. International Development secretary Hilary Benn added: “Abstinence
works if people can abstain, but I don’t think people should die because
they have sex. We need to make sure
people have all the means [of prevention] at their disposal: condoms and clean
needles. It includes education and access to sexual and reproductive health
services. We are very clear about that.”
Andrew George, Liberal Democrat spokesman on international development, said:
“In reality, people have sex... much as conservative evangelists in
the US might prefer that they didn’t.”
We’ve
got our eye on world leaders
Children from London schools and art support charity MADaboutART joined adults
from the Stop Aids Campaign and friends of the South African Treatment Action
Campaign to form a human eye in Trafalgar Square on World Aids Day. It was
to show that the world is watching world leaders to keep promises made at
the G8 summit in Gleneagles to get everyone who needs HIV therapy on it by
2010.
Who are the biggest sexual risk-takers?
Findings from the 2005 Durex Global Sex Survey reveal that half of British
adults are happy with their sex lives. However, half also admitted to having
unprotected sex with a partner without knowing their sexual history.
The survey found that the biggest risk-takers were the Norwegians, with 73
per cent confessing to unprotected sex, followed by the Greeks (70 per cent)
and Swedes (66 per cent). The lowest risk-takers were
people in India (21 per cent), Hong Kong (24 per cent) and Spain (27 per cent).
Durex also found that 19 per cent of South Africans are too scared to test
for HIV, even though they suspect they may have it.
HIV ads fail to change sexual behaviour
Poster
campaigns and radio and TV ads promoting safer sex have no effect on condom
use, according to latest research. Dr Dolores Albarracin, of the University
of Florida, reached this conclusion after completing a review of 354 HIV prevention
campaigns run between 1985 and 2003. The Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and
Malaria seem to agree and has pulled all its funding from LoveLife, a high-profile
Aids awareness campaign for South African youth, saying that the message was
both vague and ineffective. Albarracin concluded that campaigns to raise awareness
or increase the fear of Aids are ineffective in changing behaviour. On the
other hand, ‘how to’ workshops that encourage people to imagine
and act out sexual situations seem to increase condom use among all at-risk
groups, including gay men, injecting drug users and heterosexuals with multiple
partners, Albarracin found. “The approach has to be realistic,”
she said. “It has to anticipate the real problems of people in that
situation, such as being high or drunk. “The big message is that you
need to go with very active strategies. Any intervention in which the audience
gets to participate works better.” Albarracin’s research indicates
that the best approach varies with gender, age and ethnicity. Women, for instance,
appear to benefit from discussion about condom use, whereas men need hands-on
training which role-plays
real situations.
words
“HIV prevention without involving positive people cannot
succeed”
Prudence Mbowe, Positive Women’s Network South Africa
“The Ensuring Positive Futures Partnership is a collection of chief
execs with big egos, snapping teeth and big boots... our own cosy S&M
club with me as chair. But I have a handbag-size whip”
Elizabeth Crafer, director of Positively Women, jokes at the UKC Hero Awards
“Children in the developing world don’t represent a lucrative
market”
Dr Felipe Garcia de la Vega, Médicins Sans Frontières, on why
paediatric formulations of HIV drugs are ten times more expensive than adult
tablets
“All we can do is apologise. We have to admit we’ve not done enough
and started too late”
Dr Jim Yong Kim, head of WHO’s Aids programme, on the failure of the
‘3 by 5’ treatments initiative
“The culture of Aids is a culture of smoking. While 22 per
cent of Americans smoke, up to 66 per cent of HIVers are lighting up”
Gay City News, NYC
“Over 3 million died from Aids in 2005. That’s ten
times more than the estimated deaths from the Asian tsunami”
Yusef Azad, National Aids Trust
“Family planning: use rear entrance”
Sign at London hospital
