The 2011 NGO Report is now available. This year’s report focuses on legal environments and HIV responses.
Go to our special Report page to download the full report and navigate through key findings and information from the report in seven languages.
The Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) is the governing body of UNAIDS and it is made up of Member States, UN agencies and NGO Delegates. Our mission as the PCB NGO Delegation is to ensure that the priorities and interests of affected people, constituencies and communities are considered in UNAIDS decisions and policies.
Top 10 in 2011: Key Global Policy Developments Concerning MSM & HIV
January 27, 2012
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The Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF) has released a new report highlighting the top ten policy developments of 2011. Entitled, “Top 10 in 2011: Key Global Policy Developments Concerning MSM & HIV,” the document details the successes and failures of the past year in an effort to help chart a course forward.
Key highlights include epidemiological findings, steps towards universal access, guideline development, future financial concerns and the 2011 NGO Report’s findings.
The document can be found on the MSMGF’s website at: http://www.msmgf.org/files/msmgf//Publications/TopTen_2011.pdf
Action Alert: ‘Significant Risk’ and Criminalization of HIV Non-Disclosure in Canada
January 26, 2012
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On February 8, 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear two landmark cases on the issue of criminalization of HIV non-disclosure in R v. Mabior and R v. DC. According to the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, the “Court’s decisions in these two appeal cases will have profound implications not only for people living with HIV, but also for Canadian public health, police practice and the criminal justice system.”
The issue of criminal charges for HIV non-disclosure was featured in the NGO Delegation’s 2011 Report on Legal Environments and HIV Responses. The reality of how these laws are applied and the effects this has on those charged were demonstrated in moving interventions by Americans Nick Rhoades and Robert Suttle on the floor of the last UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board meeting.
The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network describes the situation in Canada:
“Currently Canadian criminal law requires people living with HIV to disclose their status before engaging in behaviour that involves a “significant risk” of transmitting the virus. More than 130 people living with HIV have been charged in less than 15 years — yet, this includes numerous cases, in which their activity posed no significant risk of HIV transmission. This is a miscarriage of justice. Such misuse of the law also contributes to a climate of anxiety, fear, stigma and misinformation that undermines HIV counseling, education and prevention efforts — and puts all Canadians at greater risk. People living with HIV are not criminals in cases where the threshold of significant risk is not met — including cases where condoms are used or an HIV-positive person is being successfully treated with antiretroviral drugs.”
Canadian and international organizations and professionals working on issues related to HIV/AIDS and in the fields of public health and law are invited to endorse the statement below. Send your name, organization (in French translation as well if applicable), title and geographic location by Wednesday 1 February at 17:00EST to info@aidslaw.ca.
Further background documents and legal information can be found on the organization’s Stop Criminalization! page.
We encourage you to also:
- Watch the trailer for the upcoming documentary by Sean Strub, founder of POZ Magazine and Senior Advisor to the Positive Justice Project, entitled “HIV Is Not A Crime”. This eight minute trailer features interviews with Nick Rhoades, Robert Suttle and Monique Howell Moree, who were all prosecuted for failing to disclose their HIV positive status prior to sexual contact.
- Visit the online resources from the Campaign to End Criminalization of HIV.
- Continue to follow on our website the outcomes of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law.
Statement:
UNITAID Civil Society Delegations Communiqué
January 24, 2012
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UNITAID – 15th Executive Board Meeting
12th-13th December 2011, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Paris, France
Civil Society Delegations Communiqué
Introduction:
UNITAID is an international drug-purchasing facility, supporting projects which use UNITAID’s long-term sustainable funding to positively impact the market for medicines and other health products for HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria. UNITAID raises money through a combination of taxes on airline tickets and long-term government funding. UNITAID is also a vehicle to encourage follow-on innovation, to ensure medicines are available in formulations and combinations that are best suited to the target populations and treatment conditions in developing countries.
The Civil Society delegations to UNITAID Board (representing NGOs and Communities affected by HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria at Board level) recently attended the 15th UNITAID Executive Board Meeting, held 12th-13th December 2011, in Paris. This communiqué is the report from the Civil Society delegations at the Board meeting. It reports back on how the two delegations’ prepared for this meeting, the main outcomes of the meeting, and what input the NGOs and Communities Board members gave. The communiqué is part of the transparency and accountability mechanism set up by Communities’ and NGOs representatives on UNITAID Board, and those who follow UNITAID closely.
Resource: Report on Stigma & Discrimination Towards the Injecting Drug User Community
January 24, 2012
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The Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL) has published a report entitled: “Why wouldn’t I discriminate against all of them?’” A report on stigma and discrimination towards the injecting drug user community.
Previous research by AIVL found that stigma and discrimination associated with people who inject drugs are both institutionalised and pervasive and that many people view this stigma and discrimination as ‘good’ for the community as a whole. Due to these findings, AIVL decided to “explore a range of questions from the perspective of people who inject drugs, to ask how current attitudes towards our community have developed over time and left us in a situation where we are almost universally categorised as social pariahs whose lives are of no value.”
Although focused on experiences in Australia, the report offers recommendations for policy, education, peer empowerment and staff training on an international level and a fascinating background on the historical development of drug use and the societal creation of stigma.
You can access the full report here.
For additional insights, including further experiences of injecting drug user communities worldwide, we encourage you to read the NGO Delegation’s 2011 Report on Legal Environments and HIV Responses.
The Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL) is the national peak organisation for state and territory peer based drug user organisations and represents issues of national significance for people who use or have used illicit drugs. Its mission is ‘to promote and protect the health and human rights of people who use or have used illicit drugs’.
