[Ip-health] URGENT: AIDS Protesters evicted from United Nations General Assembly Hall

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

 From Colleen Daniels (HAI Europe) who is attending UNGASS.

--------------

Hi Tim, Wilbert and Thiru,

Can you please post this press release out to the HAI members, edrug and
IPHealth.

I was quite happy that I did not have to spend the night in a NY jail!
We were all okay as the UN security team were realy wonderful once Kofi
Annan stepped in! We also heard that Whoopi Goldberg came on after us
and repeated our chant!!

cheers,
Colleen


        For Immediate Release
       Outraged AIDS Protesters Evicted From UN Headquarters, New York
       June 1st, 2006

       In the final hours of negotiations of the UN High-Level meeting
on HIV/AIDS in New York this week, more than 100 civil society
organizations worldwide staged an unprecedented protest shouting "The
Declaration must include: treatment, targets, women and girls, harm
reduction vulnerable groups". As they were herded out from the hall by
security guards they chanted "Silence is Death".

       They were rejecting a draft political declaration that fell far
short of expectations at a time when 8000 people a day die of AIDS globally=
.

       Governments failed to make commitments in five areas critical to
ending the global AIDS epidemic.

       According to the civil society coalition monitoring the UN
drafting process the following concrete pledges are missing from the
draft Declaration:

       *       targets for universal access to prevention, treatment,
and care, such as ensuring access to treatment for 80% of all people
living with HIV worldwide by 2010;
       *       comprehensive prevention strategies for all vulnerable
populations;
       *       substitution therapy for intravenous drug users, and
       *       women's reproductive and sexual health and rights.

       The document further fails to identify highly vulnerable and
marginalized groups, such as sex workers, injecting drug users,
prisoners, migrants, and people in conflict situations.

       "We came here because in the last five years many new issues have
emerged that were not anticipated when the 2001 Declaration of
Commitment was signed.  This new draft declaration is simply not bold
enough.  It does not address the changing realities of the AIDS
epidemic," said one of the protesters.  "Today, for example, we can
afford to treat people with antiretroviral therapy =96 which we couldn't
do five years ago because drug prices were still so high.  But in the
room right now, governments have refused to set a target for treatment
because they are afraid that this will be used to hold them accountable."

       Since 2001 the AIDS epidemic has shifted.  In Eastern Europe, for
example, there is an explosion of new infections among intravenous drug
users, who need immediate access to clean needles and substitution
therapy to avoid infection. In sub-Saharan Africa, there has been a
feminization of the epidemic. Women now make up the majority of those
infected.

       Yet commitments to providing substitution therapy and to
promoting women's rights were rejected by conservative governments.

       Many of the goals left out of today's draft declaration would
have represented a significant advancement to the 2001 Declaration of
Commitment. According to another protester, "We demand a political
commitment from governments that moves our struggle against AIDS forward
rather than back."

       For more information contact Sisonke Msimang on +27 83 450 7382
       media@ungasshiv.org <mailto:media@ungasshiv.org>
       Or Asia Russell +1 267 475 2645
       End



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