AIDS Activists circulate sign-on letter on African Trade bills

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

This is a sign-on letter that AIDS activists are circulating regarding
the two African trade bills. Jamie

---------------------------------------
To:     Activists Concerned with US Global AIDS Programs and Policies

From:Paul Boneberg
           Global AIDS Action Network (GAAN)-202-667-6300

Friends and Colleagues-

For your information below is a letter that many American AIDS
organizations
are signing relating to two Africa Trade and Development bills. GAAN is
not
signing this letter as we have not yet taken positions on the
legislation
involved; however it may be interest to many of you. 

The bill's text can be found on the web via THOMAS. For more information
or to
sign-on contact Eric Sawyer of ACT-UP NY one of the leaders of this
campaign
at esawyer@igc.apc.org. 

Whether or not you sign-on to this letter or take a position on the
legislation involved I thought this letter would be interest to many as
this
is the first large scale action ever taken by American AIDS groups on
trade/development legislation.
-----

STATEMENT BY HIV/AIDS COMMUNITY GROUPS SUPPORTING THE "HOPE FOR AFRICA
ACT"
(HR 772)

March 10, 1999

Dear Representative:

As members of community based organizations leading the fight against
AIDS in
this country, and as concerned citizens, we the listed groups urge you
to
support the "HOPE for Africa Act" (H.R. 772). This crucial legislation
will
help sub-Saharan African nations make life-saving pharmaceuticals
available to
HIV/AIDS patients, and represents a practical, cost-effective way to
combat
the global AIDS crisis.

In tandem with your support for H.R. 772, we urge you to oppose the
so-called
"African Growth and Opportunity Act" (H.R. 434). If passed, H.R. 434
would
perpetuate a cruel economic policy that ultimately discourages public
investment in social services like healthcare, and thus is antithetical
to
addressing the plight of sub-Saharan Africans with HIV/AIDS.

As you are surely aware, HIV and AIDS are rampaging throughout
sub-Saharan
Africa. While sub-Saharan nations comprise only 10% of the world's
population,
they are bearing the tragic burden of 70% of the world's new AIDS cases.
The
World Health Organization reports that of the 14 million people who have
died
of AIDS to date, 12 million have come from this region. In the
hardest-hit
countries--Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Swaziland,
infection
rates in the 15-49 age group are running at 25%. In tourist areas such
as
Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, the rates are even higher -- 40%.

Unfortunately, the effects of this rampaging epidemic are widespread:
sub-
Saharan African economies are already being slowed by the mortality of
men and
women of working age, with inevitable repercussions to a global market
economy. It has been widely reported that the possible gains associated
with
billions of development dollars invested in Africa over the past 15
years by
industrialized nations have been seriously eroded by the relentless
march of
this plague. In the arena of the public health, AIDS is giving rise to
an
explosion of such highly contagious diseases as
meningitis and tuberculosis.

In the absence of either a cure or a vaccine in the foreseeable future,
we
ignore the facts of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa at our peril. This is an
issue
of profound importance to all Americans--not only because we have the
resources and the power to make a difference, but also because we live
in a
world where interdependence and mutual responsibility are facts of life.

We--you--can act: first by opposing H.R. 434. It not only ignores the
AIDS
crisis; it requires the President to certify that indebted SSA countries
are
complying with their inhumane International Monetary Fund (IMF)
structural
adjustment programs. Compliance forces SSA governments to direct
domestic
spending to debt repayment instead of to life-saving health care and
educational initiatives. Indeed, H.R. 434 extends the "slash public
spending"
model to all SSA nations wishing to be certified by the President.

You can also act by supporting the HOPE for Africa Act (H.R. 772). The
HOPE
for Africa Act provides a combination of aid, debt relief and policies
specifically designed to increase the availability of life-extending
medications to sub-Saharan Africans with HIV/AIDS.  H.R. 772 would
prohibit
the use of United States funds to undermine any sub-Saharan African
intellectual property or competition policy that seeks to promote access
to
pharmaceuticals and other medical technologies, so long as the
legislation or
policy complies with the WTO's agreement on Trade Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property (TRIPS). HOPE would create a cooperative
relationship
between the U.S. and SSA, by making it U.S. policy to assist sub-Saharan
African countries in efforts to make life-saving medications and medical
technologies widely available through compulsory licensing and parallel
importing.

As organizations leading the domestic fight against AIDS, we strongly
urge you
to oppose H.R. 434, and any other Africa bill that would undermine the
development of a sound health policy in SSA. Please support the HOPE for
Africa Act: not to do so would contribute to an AIDS epidemic in
sub-Saharan
Africa that will claim more lives by 2005 than the Holocaust of World
War II.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>>ACT UP Golden Gate
>ACT UP Philadelphia
>ACT UP New York
>AIDS Action Baltimore
>AIDS Action Council
>AIDS Project Los Angeles
>AIDS Treatment Data Network
>Direct Access Alternative Information Resources (DAAIR)
>Gay Men's Health Crisis
>HIV Department, Lowell Community Health Center
>HIV in Prison Committee of California Prison Focus
>HIV Human Rights Project
>Housing Works
>International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission
>Multicultural AIDS Coalition, Inc
>Mobilization Against AIDS
>National Association of People with AIDS 
>National Minority AIDS Council
>National Native American AIDS Prevention Center
>People with AIDS Health Group
>People with AIDS Coalition/New York
>Search for a Cure/Boston
>Sisters Together and Reaching (STAR)/Baltimore
>Youth Outreach Adolescent Community Awareness Program
>Phil Wilson, Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Archives Project


-- 
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
http://www.cptech.org    love@cptech.org
Voice 202.387.8030, Fax 202.234.5176