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African
Negotiators lobby in bad faith at UN meeting on AIDS
African
Civil Society Coalition on AIDS
Extracted from
Pambazuka News
June 01, 2006
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/hivaids/34812
Read Rights,
responsibilities and building an effective response to AIDS by Edwin
Cameron, Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal, South Africa
Three weeks after
the African Union - the highest decision-making regional authority in
Africa - endorsed a Common Position on HIV and AIDS, African delegates
in New York are reneging on the strong commitments they made to providing
access to services for HIV prevention, care and treatment to all those
who need them in Africa. At the Abuja Heads of States Summit held from
May 2 - 4, African states committed to:
- Reaching at least
80% of pregnant women with access to prevention of mother to child transmission
(PMTCT);
- Ensuring that 80%
of orphans and vulnerable children have access to basic services by
10;
- Ensuring that at
least 80% of those in need, especially women and children, have access
to HIV/AIDS treatment, including antiretroviral therapy as well as care
and support;
- Ensuring that at
least 80% of target populations have access to voluntary testing and
counselling services
- Reaching at least
80% of target populations with access to condoms and the skills to use
them for HIV prevention.
Although African Heads
of States endorsed a strong declaration with clear targets and timeframes
for fighting AIDS in Africa, bureaucrats and officials at a UN review
are refusing to acknowledge these commitments.
In a surprising turn of events, and a remarkable display of bad faith,
negotiators from Gabon, Egypt and South Africa have refused to acknowledge
the legitimacy of the African Common Position, and have aligned themselves
with the United States, the EU and Japan in rejecting the inclusion of
targets in the UNGASS Political Declaration.
African negotiators have resisted the inclusion of specific measures to
protect and promote the human rights of vulnerable groups, including sex
workers, men who have sex with men, injecting drug users, adolescents
and women. This refusal to acknowledge the people most affected by the
global epidemic again flies in the face of the Common Position, which
clearly specifies the need to support these and other groups in programmes
designed to prevent and treat HIV and AIDS. The positions of the countries
listed above are particularly puzzling in light of the
evidence regarding the impact of HIV and AIDS: 77% of young people living
with HIV and AIDS are young women.
Nigeria is the only African country that has openly spoken out against
the undermining of the African Common Position. Not a single other African
state has followed suit, despite repeated information notes from the African
Union secretariat, informing New York-based African negotiators about
the existence and importance of the Common Position.
Instead, silence and apathy have mired the African bloc, and rendered
the bloc of over fifty AU member states virtually silent for the duration
of the negotiations.
We call on countries such as Namibia and Kenya, which have indicated to
civil society that they do not agree with the position articulated by
the African negotiators to do so openly. We call on all African countries
to honour the commitments made at Abuja three weeks ago and to stop the
bad faith negotiations being undertaken in their name.
For more information contact:
Omololu Falobi
Email: omololu@nigeria-aids.org
Tel: +1 646 578 6757
Sisonke Msimang
Email: sisonkem@osisa.org
Tel: +27 83 450 7382
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