AIDS 2004 - XV International AIDS Conference

Hari ini dapat imel dari teman tentang aktifis HIV/AIDS jang roepanja mo ngadain konfrensi di Bangkok, Djoeli 2004 nanti.
Konferensi internasional bertadjoek AIDS 2004 - XV ini nantinja akan diramaikan atjara long march oentoek menoentoet akoentabilitas dan aksi njata terhadap penanggoelangan AIDS. Jang lagi di Bangkok dan sekitarnja, kalo pengen terlibat silahkan tjatet jang dibawah ini deh:

CALL TO ACTION:

AIDS 2004 - XV International AIDS Conference:
Thai AIDS Treatment Activists Invite Allies to Join a March and Protest to Demand Accountability and Action on AIDS


SAVE THE DATE:
July 11, 2004 in Bangkok, Thailand
(The Opening day of the XV International AIDS Conference)
The theme of the XV International AIDS Conference theme is "Access for All"
We, Thai people living with HIV/AIDS and NGO allies, send a call to action to the international community to join a movement at the upcoming International AIDS Conference (Bangkok, July 2004) demanding accountability from heads of states, agencies, and individuals obstructing or failing to effectively address the gaps and inequities in HIV/AIDS treatment access, and demand real access for all.

BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE DYING NEEDLESSLY

- 3 million people died of AIDS in 2003 but it's STILL BUSINESS AS USUAL worldwide
- 6 million people of the 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide need ARV treatment NOW - but only 400,000 have access

BECAUSE WE DO NOT ACCEPT BROKEN PROMISES

More than 5.5 million PLWHA(People Living With HIV/AIDS) are without access to treatment because:
- National governments refuse to prioritize the fight against AIDS, and refuse to transform their rhetoric into concrete economic and political action;

- Rich donor countries that have broken their promises to spend $10 billion annually fighting global AIDS by 2005;

- International agencies have not made good on the promise to fill the deadly gap in access to treatment. By 2005, by the most optimistic estimates, only 240,000 additional people, or 4% of the total need, will access HIV/AIDS treatment through financing from

the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM)-- the "principle funding vehicle" for the WHO's '3 x 5' treatment access initiative;


BECAUSE WE KNOW HIV/AIDS CAN BE TREATED AND AFFORDABLE MEDICINES EXIST.

- Thai people living with HIV/AIDS and NGO allies, successfully lobbied and worked with our government to produce generic anti-retroviral drugs cheaply and developed comprehensive, community-based care programs so that universal access could be effectively delivered.

- Today, through a government program aiming to treat 50,000 people by 2005, we have already seen AIDS-related mortality drop by over 50%;


BECAUSE REAL ACCESS TO LIVE-SAVING TREATMENT AND PREVENTION IS NEEDED FOR ALL!


- PLWHA around the world are struggling to prevent national treatment programs from duplicating the social and economic inequities that put marginalized people, including rural people, women, children, men who have sex with men, and drug users last in line for life saving treatment;

- PLWHA around the world are threatened by ideologues attempting to thwart access to basic HIV prevention tools, particularly for the most vulnerable groups including women, men who have sex with men, migrant workers, prisoners, and injecting drug users;

- PLWHA face human rights violations in the form of repressive drug wars and policies, although 1 in 3 new infections outside Africa are the result of sharing of injecting equipment, and needle exchange has been proven to save lives without increasing rates of drug use;

BECAUSE EFFORTS TO FIGHT AIDS ARE UNDER ATTACK

- PLWHA around the world face bilateral donor programs that force treatment and prevention programs to abandon science and best practice, blocking life saving HIV prevention efforts, and blocking purchase of quality, low cost generic medicines;

- PLWHA around the world face barriers to access to affordable generic medicines as a result of regional and bilateral trade agreements with the U.S., undermining national sovereignty and capacity to address public health priorities such as HIV/AIDS;

BECAUSE WE KNOW WE CAN WIN AND THERE IS STILL MUCH MORE WORK TO BE DONE

- Even in Thailand, sometimes called the "next Brazil" in terms of treatment victories, where generic HIV/AIDS drugs are as cheap as USD $0.96 per day, deadly foreign policies threaten to undermine access to quality generic medicine, through efforts such as the U.S. government's proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Thailand.

- Access for all in Thailand is still not equitable; undocumented migrants, ethnic minorities denied citizenship, injecting drug users, prisoners and others still face non-medical exclusion criteria and social and economic barriers including health-care setting-based discrimination, which prevent them from accessing ARV.

- Activists in Thailand are demanding drug users worldwide get access to comprehensive prevention and treatment, not the threat of government sanctioned killing and unlawful detention;

BECAUSE SOLIDARITY AND ACTION ARE NEEDED TO WIN TREATMENT ACCESS FOR ALL, WIN THE REALIZATION OF OUR RIGHT TO HEALTH, AND TO STOP THE WAR ON HIV PREVENTION

By: Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (TNP+) and the community of Thai AIDS Activists