About 100 members of civil society, including many people with HIV/AIDS from resource-constrained settings, were expelled from the UN and a special event, "An Evening of Remembrance and Hope" on Thursday night, after they stood up and began chanting for "treatment, targets, women, harm reduction, vulnerable groups" to be restored to the UN's latest draft of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS.
The UN had invited an unprecedented number (over 1400) of representatives from civil society to actively participate in the general assembly sessions and panel discussions during the 2006 UN high level meeting on AIDS, which was hoped to usher in a new era of accountability and transparency needed for the governments of the world to "halt and reverse the global epidemic by 2015." Despite their presence, ironically, back-room negotiations during the meeting have undermined the very foundation that will direct future UN policy, the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDs, which is to be adopted tomorrow.
As it currently stands, the document is lacking concrete actionable pledges, some of which are new, but many of which were included in the 2001 Declaration. These include:
- targets for access to prevention, treatment, and care — the activists would like the Declaration to commit to ensuring access to treatment for 80% of all people living with HIV worldwide by 2010 as was promised by the leaders of the G8 at the Gleneagles Summit last year — but the current declaration sets no targets for treatment at all
- comprehensive prevention strategies for all vulnerable populations;
- substitution therapy for intravenous drug users, and
- the empowerment of women (including any mention of violence against women or promotion of women’s reproductive and sexual health and rights).
The document further fails to identify highly vulnerable and marginalised groups, such as sex workers, injecting drug users, prisoners, migrants, people in conflict situations or men who have sex with men.
While many countries have played a part in weakening the draft commitment, many believe the US government's delegation is manipulating the process, advancing both the so-called Christian Right's agenda by deleting references to marginalised vulnerable groups considered morally unacceptable, and advancing Western pharmaceutical company interests by deleting references to generic drugs. Furthermore, the US delegation and allies such as Japan has resisted any language that might commit member countries to financing the anti-AIDS efforts.
Outraged at having been sold out, a large contingent of civil society members decided to stand and disrupt the moment of silence during the special event with celebrities and dignitaries. “We demand a political commitment from governments that moves our struggle against AIDS forward rather than back,” said one African activist.
When they began standing and chanting, police and security guard quickly moved to throw the activists out, and they narrowly avoided having their badges confiscated and being permanently barred from the UN.
However, the action had an impact on many of those present, and led to an expression of solidarity from actress Whoopi Goldberg, who closed her address saying,
"I've lost the last part of my speech, but essentially what I'd like to say is that what you do tomorrow will decide what will happen for years to come [in the fight against AIDS]. If you don't fix it, it's not going to happen."