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drinkanddrugsnews
| September 2012
Awareness |
International AIDS Conference
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
Stigma and prejudice still stand firmly in the way of achieving
an AIDS-free generation says
Dr Chris Ford
, who shares her
observations on the 19th International AIDS Conference
Frontline challenge
I
t was a difficult decision to go to the International AIDS Conference in
Washington after hearing that most people who use drugs and many sex
workers – those very much directly affected by HIV and HIV policies – couldn’t
attend because of US visa restrictions. The US government had lifted the
exclusion of people living with HIV, but there remain legal entry restrictions against
people who have criminal records for crimes of ‘moral turpitude’, which includes drug
and prostitution offences. This made travel to the US difficult or impossible for many
people who use or had used drugs, and sex workers.
After much debate about the politics of compromise and realising there was
much important work for International Doctors for Healthy Drug Policies (IDHDP) to
conduct with others attending the conference – including holding our first patrons’
meeting, members’ business meeting and expanding IDHDP’s membership more into
the HIV world – I decided to go. Having some of those who could not travel to the US
represented via excerpts from the pre-conference ‘alternative’ event in Kiev shown
throughout the conference, helped with the decision as well (
http://bit.ly/OqiPHY)
.
Direct action occurred throughout the conference, starting with a march through
Washington and continuing in the opening plenary session, when activists
interrupted with banners and chanted ‘No drug users? No sex workers? No
International AIDS Conference!’
(http://bit.ly/QrR0R8)
giving a voice to those who
were not there. Throughout the conference it was my impression that the cries of
exclusion were warranted. Its agenda tended to give short shrift to drug use as an
important method of transmission of HIV, with the exception of the Global Village, a
lively, but segregated area two floors below the plenary and major session halls.
Arriving for the first time at the venue was almost scary with more than 24,000
delegates and 4,000 others, my biggest previous conference having been 1,500
delegates. But the staff, volunteers and delegates were all instantly friendly and
after an easy registration I headed off to the Global Village, sometimes referred to
as ‘the real heart’ of the conference, where many NGO stalls and the drug, harm
reduction, human rights, sex worker, and youth networking zones were located. The
Global Village, although isolated form the main conference plenary and session
rooms, was a platform for communities, activists and practitioners representing
diversity and solidarity. Here there was a full programme of presentations about
the social and economic links of HIV, as well as HIV and drug use.
Throughout the presentations there were common, recurring themes relating
to stigma, prejudice, social exclusion, discrimination, violence and vulnerability. I
was moved by the individual stories of outreach workers, doctors and other
health professionals and people who are HIV positive, especially those working in
Russia. They risk all by providing care to people who use drugs and they have to
conduct outreach in terrible conditions. I was also moved by the story of the
Kenyan drug worker who walks to different villages talking about harm reduction
and testing people for HIV, trying to explain that the second wave of the HIV
Activists interrupt the International AIDS Conference with banners and chanting: ‘No
drug users? No sex workers? No International AIDS Conference!’ See http://bit.ly/QrR0R8