Thursday July 22

Globally people living with HIV are experiencing human rights violations which are related to their HIV-positive status. The Global Network of People living with HIV (GNP+) documents these violations through the Human Rights Count! Findings from pilot studies in Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia show that the most common right violated is the right to work, with work being terminated or denied owing to the HIV positive status of the person. More importantly in all three countries more than 60% of the people whose rights were violated did not report the violations to the authorities.

“Results from the Human Rights Count! demonstrate the need for the focus on human rights in the HIV response,” says Dr. Kevin Moody, International Coordinator and CEO of GNP+. “It also shows the necessity for human rights and legal literacy services for people living with HIV. Human rights should be universally respected and it is the duty of the government to protect them.”

The Human Rights Count! gathers evidence through a specifically designed reporting questionnaire, developed and implemented through a methodology driven by people living with HIV. Documented cases inform and provide the evidence towards devising long-term solutions to these violations. GNP+ collaborates with networks of people living with HIV at country level to build awareness of human rights and ensure that any global policy and advocacy is informed from the grass roots level.

Under Positive Health, Dignity and Prevention there is a clear commitment to respecting the rights of individuals – placing the dignity of individual people living with HIV at the heart of prevention efforts. Only in such environments the health and wellbeing of each individual can be properly protected and built.

During one of the late breakers sessions, the Global Network of People living with HIV [presented] results from Namibia and Swaziland as well as snapshots of new indicative data from Canada, Indonesia, and the United States of America.

MEDIA STATEMENT:  Global Network of People living with HIV

Monday July 19

Giving HIV a place: Coping Strategies and Life Choices of HIV discordant couples

Recognising HIV discordance and addressing the needs of discordant couples should form an integral part of global and national responses to the HIV epidemic. Where the transmission and acquisition of HIV by definition take place in relationships where one person is HIV-positive and the other HIV-negative, it is important to understand coping strategies and life choices in HIV discordant relationships and to learn from them for global HIV prevention efforts.

The Global Network of People living with HIV (GNP+) in two exciting sessions during AIDS 2010 will shed light on HIV discordant relationships. Drawing on research with 51 HIV discordant couples in long-term relationships in South Africa, Tanzania and the Ukraine, GNP+ will deconstruct the issues of disclosure, reproductive desires and HIV prevention strategies within HIV discordant relationships, with a particular focus on men who have sex with men (MSM).

Understanding HIV discordant relationships in an era of effective treatment is an important part of Positive Health, Dignity and Prevention. People living with HIV are defining their own prevention, treatment, care and support needs as they relate to their lives and the lives of those close to them.

Under Positive Health, Dignity and Prevention there is a clear commitment to improving the quality of lives of people living with HIV, their partners and their communities. With people living with HIV living longer and healthy lives, more attention is being paid to relationships, intimacy, disclosure and safer sex for HIV discordant couples. Positive Health, Dignity and Prevention recognises the importance of addressing the broad needs of people living with HIV. It highlights the importance of placing the person living with HIV at the centre of managing their health and wellbeing within their social, cultural, economic and legal context.

HIV Discordant Couples: An Exploratory study, was carried out by the Centre for Health Policy at the University of the Witwatersrand, and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), in collaboration with GNP+. The full report can be accessed here: http://www.gnpplus.net/images/stories/SRHR/Discordant_Couple_Study_Full.pdf

The Global Network of People living with HIV is presenting experiences of people living with HIV during AIDS 2010:

 Sero-difference: Experience about Sex and Relationships

Wednesday 21 July – Workshop – 11:00 – 12:30 – Mini Room 2

The workshop will provide insight into real life challenges and psycho-social needs within sero-different relationships and how these have been managed by people in these relationships. During the workshop there will be opportunity to ask questions to Dr. Kevin Moody, International Coordinator and CEO of GNP+ and his husband about how they are dealing with their sero-difference.

Monday July 19 2010

Activism can be a messy affair – as well it should be when we have something to fuel our passion.  Here in Vienna, that passion turned to righteous anger as 200 delegates from all over the world joined forces to speak out on behalf of the millions who still do not have access to treatment.  Why?  Because so many countries, including the USA, are failing to meet their commitments to the funds that were supposed to get us to universal access by the time we met here in Vienna.

Activists gathered near the Global Village and wound their way to the Opening Session in the cavernous Hall 1 by way of the Exhibition Hall where we stopped in front of the booths of some of the countries whose failure to fund the funds was loudly criticized by the crowd, armed with signs, banners and megaphones: the governments of Austria, Sweden, Germany, the US and yes, Canada, were all targeted.

The demonstrators then continued chanting as they marched to the foyer of Hall 1 where the Opening Session would begin some 30 minutes later, and 10 minutes later than planned.  Once there, everyone spread out on the floor and lay down, beginning a huge die-in that lasted some 20 minutes.  The demonstrators then made their way into the Hall and right up onto the Stage where they continued to chant.  I even heard the sound of a vuvuzela though I never spotted it.

“What year is it? 2010!” “Sex workers rights are never wrong!”  “Fund the funds!”

“Broken promises kill!”

No wonder that flat-lining the funds, such as the Global Fund, by donor countries is the number one issue during the conference.  How would you like to tell the people lining up at your clinic – sorry, take a number, come back and see us if you’re still alive in a year.

But disrupting the opening of the conference pales in comparison to the disruption to the lives of tens of millions of people living with HIV and AIDS and in need of treatment.

Who doesn’t get it?  Funding universal access isn’t just about drugs in people, it is about an investment in a public good, one that we all deserve as a human right.  The investment will pay off in spades when you compare the life span of a person to the life span of, say a nuclear power plant.  That could be 70 years compared to 30.  I think most of the activists also see funding for treatment as part of the strengthening of health systems and that the two need to go hand in hand.  Any compromise leads to a false choice.

For my part, I helped to fill 4 huge balloons with helium.  They floated over the foyer, each one 10 feet in diameter, the pictures of the G8 leaders looking down on those of us who are feeling, well, betrayed.

Especially since it is my birthday and this was not the present I hoped for.

19 July 2010

Dear all,

For those of you who are at the International AIDS Conference, we wanted to be sure you knew about the following two sessions on MSM this Wednesday and Thursday!

1)
Community Development Workshops

WEWS01 Safe Sex Skills and Knowledge Development among Men who have Sex with Men in Low and Middle Income Countries
Venue: Mini Room 1
Time: Wednesday 21 July, 11:00-12:30
Language: English
Level: Foundation
Target audience: Community Organizers in the early stages of developing HIV prevention programmes for communities of MSM in from low- and middle-income countries
Seating limits: 50
Facilitators: Stefan Baral, United States
Tudor Kovacs, Romania
Daouda Diouf, Senegal

This session is intended to provide orientation and share experience on how to develop protocol for qualitative services for marginalized groups. A special focus will be put in providing participants with the evidence-base for combination structural and individual level interventions preventing HIV for men who have sex with men in low- and middle-income countries. Given multiple levels of HIV risk,effective interventions for men who have sex with men must be multi-modal including both individual level interventions  as well as those that address the structural contexts for HIV risk. Little has been published on effective community-led models of HIV prevention for MSM in LMIC including peer education models, health promotion strategies, structured media strategies, and the engagement of key government and religious leaders. Currently, the peer-reviewed evidence for interventions targeting MSM has been mainly produced in high income settings with some key strategic data from lower income settings including Sen gal, Peru, and Thailand. This workshop will provide and opportunity to describe lessons learned from developed quality control protocol as well as functional models of the provision of programmes even in difficult social, legal, and economic circumstances. The goal is to share lessons learned from the peer-reviewed literature with that learned from community-led MSM programming in low and middle income countries.

2)
MSM and HIV Prevention Research: Part 2
Thursday, 22 July 2010
Hall A, IAS Office, Orange Room

On Sunday, 18 July, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the Global Forum on MSM and HIV, amfAR and researchers at John’s Hopkins University hosted a meeting at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna to discuss HIV prevention research with men who have sex with men (MSM). The discussion focused on fostering stronger and more equal relationships between researchers and community advocates.  Attendees proposed the development of guidance that could inform the sensitive and respectful engagement of MSM in HIV prevention research.  This meeting – scheduled for Thursday, 22 July will build on this discussion by outlining an work plan and timeline for guidance development.  Please write to jbeck@msmgf.org for additional details.

22 JULY 2010 – UNAIDS ROOM 1 – VIENNA – 14H00 – 16H00

As you may be aware, the 25^th PCB requested the UNAIDS Secretariat to work with Cosponsors to develop an overarching Partnership Strategy. The Strategy is being developed in conjunction with the new UNAIDS Vision, Mission Statement and Strategic Plan.

So far, the process for developing the Strategy has included consultation with co-sponsors to map out the process and timeline, a literature review and a Multi-stakeholder Consultation in Bangkok.

A Working Group with membership from the UNAIDS Secretariat, Cosponsors and civil society was established in April 2010 to further develop the overarching framework for the Partnership Strategy.

In order to assist us in the next stages of its development, we invite you to join us for a consultation on the Partnership Strategy during the Vienna AIDS Conference on 22 July 2010 in UNAIDS Conference Room 1 from 14h00 to 16h00.

Tuesday 20 July, 3:00pm – 4:30pm (Session Room 2)

Join representatives from KANCO, SAfAIDS, and the Alliance to explore ways in which technology offers unique ways of improving information sharing and networking among HIV and AIDS practitioners at a community level.

and

Open Meeting of HIV Knowledge Management Practitioners

Wednesday 21 July, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon
UNAIDS Office Meeting Room 3

UNODC, AIDSPortal and the AIDS and Law Exchange (AIDSLEX) invite you to an open meeting of people who are engaged in HIV knowledge management.  The meeting aims to provide a space to connect practitioners working in this area. This is an open meeting, so anyone else you know working on KM is welcome!

ICAD Activities at the XVII International AIDS Conference /Activités de la CISD au XVIIIe Congrès international sur le sida

July 18-23, 2010 Vienna, Austria / 18-23 juillet 2010 Vienne, Autriche

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