When members of Brigada Callejera, a sex workers' and transgender rights organization in Mexico City, came to the first of the AIDS2008 activist meetings last Saturday morning, they explained the human rights issues that sex workers here face. Not only are sex workers forced to take STD and HIV tests - and carry a card saying they are HIV negative - a new policy requires them to pay for these tests themselves. This repression is in addition to the fact that sex work is still illegal here, and the police are more likely to arrest workers if they carry condoms.
The group, whose members include Elvira Madrid, Krisna, and Elma Delea, also held a lively protest for access to HIV meds in Mexico yesterday. I believe that Krisna said in the activist meeting on Saturday that antiretrovirals cost 7,500 pesos per month (about $750) here in Mexico, but I need to fact-check that. She did say that indigenous people have almost no access to prevention or treatment services.
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The venerable medical journal the Lancet dedicated its pre-IAC issue to HIV-prevention, what editor Richard Horton called “the neglected issue in the AIDS response.” On Wednesday, contributing authors called for a reinvigorated movement for prevention that demands a comprehensive, multifaceted approach, including structural change. Mirroring the Caucus for Evidence Based Prevention critiques of narrow definitions of evidence, the distinguished panel also called for investment in flexibile, realistic monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.
Jeffery O’Malley, director of the HIV and AIDS group at the UN Development Program, opened with the history of HIV-prevention, urging us to remember when prevention and epidemiology were all the AIDS community had enough information talk about. In the early 80s, he recalled, “gay men and drag queens invented safe sex, and they still haven’t been given the Nobel Prize.”
Length: 2:21
In case you are tired of reading and want to listen to something: Activists Ms. Starr, Samanta, Lek and Susan speak on why sex workers are at the International AIDS Conference - a piece I put together for Free Speech Radio News, a national news network in the United States.
What is standing out for me at the conference is the need to focus
on investment and programs for and research of the most at-risk
groups – men who have sex with men, drug users, sex workers and
prisoners.
Let’s be frank, this is no “save the children” kind of cause -
generally people are afraid of these groups and don’t know much about
them. I’ve had a lot of global experiences in my life, but I have never
spoken directly with a sex worker or prisoner (to my knowledge). With
so many sex workers here, I can surely change this soon.
Simple prejudices and impressions aside, the numbers tell a
shocking story. Of global AIDS expenditures, only 1.2 percent is spent
on specific responses to men who have sex with men. This totals $3
million out of the estimated $30 million needed according to UNAI
“Less than 10% of high risk populations are receiving appropriate
prevention.” Alex Coutinho, Executive Director, Infectious Disease
Institute Uganda. In Uganda, a prisoner is more likely to die of AIDS
than any other cause.
Outside of Africa, drug users, sex workers and men who have sex
with men make up the vast majority of those contracting HIV. It’s
amazing after 25 years and billions of dollars, we are not able to
better address these populations. There is research and success stories
that document what works in these populations, especially in Mexico and
Brazil.
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My day ended today playing the role of "mama-san" in Empower's newest intereactive presentation, a game really, about the realities (fun and challenging) of sex work in Thailand, 7:55, or what sex work is when you're not having sex
Sex! Sex! Sex!
Libraries are about to burst open... they're overflowing with information about sex and sex workers! AIDS researcher centers drowning in data about us and sex... thesis after thesis on how we do it, why we do it, how to do it safely with us. Seems about sex workers is covered again and again... everyong in the whole world seems to know and have an expert opinion, paper or presentation about us to put forward at any conference whether local, national regional or itnernational.
...but maybe you never considered that the part of our work that has filled the academic halls with mountains of data, statistics and tehaories... is a tiny tiny part of out work... just like a small 5 minutes of our working shift!
So began our latest adventure with Empower, one of the strongest most inspiring sex worker groups in the world. It's important for people to understand that sex workers, like all people, have many other things besides how/why we have sex that affect our ability to be safe, in all manners of the term including from HIV.
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During this week, I will be tracking issues related to criminalization
of HIV transmission and the nexus between HIV and imprisonment.
This morning, activists from around the world met at the global village to draft a document entitled “Criminalizing HIV Transmissions: 10 Reasons Why It’s Bad Public Policy." Stay tuned for the release of the document later today.
These advocacy efforts currently taking place at the IAC reflect a
commitment by activists around the world to raise the profile about
institutionalized state violence facing the most marginalized and
vulnerable populations who are disproportionally affected by the
HIV/AIDS epidemic.
In the U.S. - as in most parts of the world - racial, sexual and gender
minorities, immigrants, sex workers, drug users, homeless people and
those currently and formerly incarcerated face overwhelming social
discrimination, exclusion and stigma. This marginalization is
compounded in no small measure by high imprisonment, criminal sanctions
against sex work, the persistence of draconian drug sentencing policies
in certain areas of the country and institutionalized homophobia that
heightens vulnerability and hinders effective HIV/AIDS prevention
efforts.
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by Annelies Mesman, youth rapporteur and CHOICE board member, and Vanessa Brocato
“Universal Action Now!”— more than 300 young people from around the world gathered for 3 days before the International AIDS Conference to empower each other to move beyond rhetoric to concrete action. As part of Mexico YouthForce, young leaders led discussions on not only HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment and care but also the range of sexual and reproductive health and rights and social justice issues that intersect with and complicate responses to AIDS.
“Hope is here. Adults don’t know the challenges we are facing; they are guessing. You can never be successful if you design any program for young people without them. This is for all the adults here: Let the Mexico YouthForce speak!” said Igor Mocorro, a 21 year old from the Philippines.
Prior to this event, 125 young people from 46 countries worked together, communicating virtually, to create key messages of the Mexico YouthForce. Throughout the Banamex, posters will carry the following resulting slogans:
• Rights: we have a right to comprehensive, accurate information and services to protect our sexual health.
• Respect: for our realities, our experiences, and our contributions. read more »
Sex workers from across all continents, including most countries in
Latin America, have come together in Mexico City prior to the
International AIDS Conference to build community, increase sex worker
visibility, and unify to demand recognition of sex worker rights as an
integral part of HIV/AIDS work. Following on the great sex worker
organizing that happened in Toronto at the last International AIDS
Conference (IAC), activists are hoping that by coming together before
the actual IAC sex workers will be better positioned to advance their
messages and visibility, especially at a crucial time when new attacks
on sex worker rights are happening in name of saving sex workers.
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Sex workers can speak for themselves - short audio piece
During this week, I will be tracking issues related to criminalization
of HIV transmission and the nexus between HIV and imprisonment.
Sex Workers of the World Unite before the International AIDS Conference
