Hundreds of HIV activists flocked to NYC
last month to lobby the
UN special session on HIV/Aids. UKC chair Bernard Forbes
was among them
Arrive
Monday at JFK airport on an unseasonably hot afternoon. In line for immigration
control, I’m pulled out for special enquiries due to the nature of my
visa (below). The permanent statement and number code on my passport tells
immigration officials I’m HIV positive. Living with HIV excludes me
from the visa waiver programme, like people with criminal records and the
mentally ill. 
Immigration only asked whether I’d ever had a green card
to work in the states and the answer was “no”. So I was on my
way. I was lucky. Later I heard horror stories of people with HIV, including
UNAIDS staff, who’d had problems getting visas or were detained for
up to seven hours.
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe
free”, reads the plaque at the feet of the Statue of Liberty. Yet attending
a meeting on the second day addressing the ongoing travel ban, the news was
good. Gail Flintoft of Aids 2006 in Toronto outlined how Canada’s immigration
ban was lifted, which shows, given the will, it can be done. But Canada is
not America and in Bush’s paranoia post 9/11, ‘homeland security’
issues overshadow the rights of people living with HIV.
Robert Bank of Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) told activists it would
be a challenge to raise this unpopular issue about a ban on HIV positive foreigners
when immigration was already a hot topic in the US. He said the debate needed
to move away from the politics of scarcity (an overloaded health and education
system) and towards an issue of principle. For that, the US non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) will need concerted support from outside America.
Tuesday
30 May, eve of meeting
I woke on Tuesday to the breaking news of actor Ben Affleck’s hospitalisation
for a migraine. God bless America. At the Civil Society Briefing session,
Andy Seale of UNAIDS announced: “This is a unique opportunity to engage
in what’s happening here in New York.” (I think: “Not for
the people denied visas.”) Outspoken GMHC activist Gregg Gonsalves’
basic message for UNGASS was that money should go to NGOs directly, bypassing
corrupt governments. He said a range of products, not just drugs, were needed,
and that goals must be measurable, because if you can’t measure it,
it won’t happen.
Wednesday
31 May
The General Assembly meeting opened in the morning. Only government representatives
and official advisors were present, with the notable exception of Khensani
Mavasa, deputy chair of South Africa’s Treatment Action Campaign (TAC);
the first person living with HIV to address the General Assembly. She spoke
courageously of her experiences of rape and called for: “...all African
leaders to protect and promote the human rights of all people and vulnerable
groups, particularly women and girls.” TAC has been critical of the
South African government’s reluctance to make antiretrovirals available
and its insistence that ‘beetroot and garlic’ were effective HIV
treatments.
The hearing for civil society organisations opened with UN President Jan Eliason
followed by Secretary General Kofi Anan calling for greater involvement of
HIV positive people. Significantly, he made a particular reference to sex
workers, IV drug users, and men who have sex with men, eliciting long and
loud applause from the audience who knew that the Islamic states and Egypt
had already successfully expunged these words from the draft declaration.
There were major political and geographical blocks, and some individual countries
breaking out of their regional blocks where they disagreed. Among these was
Nigeria, fed up with Gabon representing all of Africa, while pushing a position
different from the one commonly agreed by governments at the African Union
conference in Abuja earlier this year. Nigeria managed to put the proper African
Union position, but it’s hardly a union if the appointed spokes-country
won’t say the words.
Outside in the baking heat, many hundreds of US and international demonstrators
gathered, most wearing ‘HIV positive’ t-shirts, to protest against
the Bush administration’s foot-dragging on drug availability at home
and its
neo-con attitude to prevention abroad.
Sipho Mthathi, TAC general secretary, spoke for many in the crowd: “Abstinence-only
does not work, it hasn’t for the last 6,000 years. South Africa must
be told to end denialism and ensure she does not stand in the way of the Africa
position.”
There was real anger at the apparent lack of negotiations at these negotiations.
The co-chairs were meeting with different groups of countries to discuss objections
to certain paragraphs, but refused to go through any more line-by-line discussion.
The priority was appearing to be a non-controversial agreement and trying
to push consensus on universal access. But this resulted in many paragraphs
being watered down, so people felt the whole process was going to end up with
a position actually weaker than the 2001 declaration.
Harm reduction activist Andrea Mordaunt, former PN columnist and widow of
UKC co-founder, John Mordaunt, made an impassioned speech on the shortcomings
of governments, pointing out it was civil society organisations that did all
the work and saved all the lives and yet we were being side-lined.
Thursday
1 June
The revised declaration finally arrived mid-afternoon and we set about looking
at the language, paragraph by paragraph. Our amendments centred on references
to ‘vulnerable groups’ (drug users, sex workers, men who have
sex with men, etc), the importance of women’s empowerment and other
realities countries ruled by religious fundamentalists would prefer ignored.
Saved, printed and emailed, we handed the amended document to the anxiously
waiting UK official delegation. Robin Gorna, from the Department for International
Development (DFID), told me the next day the negotiations went on until 3.30am.
I was under no illusion the UNGASS declaration would only ever be a compromise,
whatever our list of wishes. But it’s good to hear the points we want
included are almost 100 per cent supported by DFID.
Some civil society organisations, including ActionAid International and TAC,
walked out of the UN General Assembly in a symbolic protest against what was
expected to be a weak declaration on HIV/Aids. These delegates were escorted
from the building by UN security staff who demanded their passes. A high UN
official intervened, ordering that the delegates maintain their credentials
although they were asked not to return that evening.
Friday
2 June
Friday’s assembly opens with a brief speech from First Lady of the White
House, Laura Bush, in which she praised the US’s (apparently) single-handed
and successful efforts to fight Aids. Why an unelected person was invited
to address the UN is unclear but George Bush is at home showing the Pittsburg
Steelers team around the Oval Office.
The final document was released and while far removed from what it should
have been, there is no doubt a few concessions were won, such as recognising
the need for $20-23 billion dollars annually, a commitment to universal access
to HIV treatments and the fact the document retained references to condoms
despite opposition from some governments.
In his address, Hilary Benn, UK Secretary of State for International Development,
summarised the disappointment felt by many:
“I wish we could have been a bit more frank in our declaration about
telling the truth...
I recognise that some of these truths are difficult and uncomfortable. But
I would simply say we cannot let discomfort get in the way of saving lives,
just as we cannot let prejudice get in the way of the facts.”
Back in the civil society conference room, the Americans issued a press release
on behalf of all of us that denounced the UN meeting on Aids as a “failure”.
This was annoying as none of the UK NGOs were consulted and we don’t
see it quite as badly. So Nicola from National Aids Trust started knocking
up a press release. It was a challenge to produce a response that fitted the
needs of both the domestic UK NGOs and those of the international ones based
in the UK, but we did.
The whole process was tiring and frustrating. Civil society involvement was
minimal and marginalised. Our access to the mission was limited and those
of us that weren’t in governmental delegations were barred many areas.
But if we hadn’t been there, shouting from the sidelines, getting arrested
and trying to show decision-makers the global reality of life with HIV, the
whole process would have been even more of a waste of time.
