Campaign in MALI to Declare HIV/AIDS a Public Health Threat

MALI: /RIGHTS/HEALTH/ /19/12/02 IPS

BAMAKO – In MALI, people living with HIV/AIDS face abuse and discrimination.

Modibo Kane is president of the Malian Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS. Kane told Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency that the justice system in MALI provides no legal protection to HIV-positive people.

Out of a population of 10.5 million, Mali has 6,846 people living with HIV/AIDS. Of that figure, 3,864 are women and 2,971 men, according to a 2001 survey by the ministry of health.

Aissaata Sacko, president of the Association of AIDS Widows and Orphans, says AIDS widows and their children are frequently abandoned by their extended families.

Women, who resist are often subjected to abuse. An AIDS widow was told to get out of his house by the house owner. When she refused, he removed the roof of the house in the middle of the rainy season.

Kane wants the government to declare AIDS a public health threat like small pox and TB. He believes only that will reduce the discrimination faced by HIV-positive people in MALI. /IPS/an

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Asia Stands Up to US Attempts to Meddle with AIDS Plan

THAILAND: /RIGHTS/HEALTH/ /19/12/02 IPS

BANGKOK – Over 30 Asia-Pacific countries voted to stop the UNITED STATES from reshaping their regional policy on population and HIV/AIDS at a meeting in Bangkok.

US delegates raised objections to the language in the final document on reproductive rights and health services. Also, sections of the regional policy towards HIV/AIDS and gender equality, says a report by Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency.

The Bush administration is trying to break the global consensus on gender equality and reproductive health services and rights arrived at in Cairo in 1994.

The Bangkok meeting in early December was the first in a series of regional meetings that are seeking to affirm and advance the programme of action that came out of the UN-organised meeting, says the IPS report.

In Cairo, 179 countries, including the United States, endorsed landmark population polices, which secured universal support for gender equality and reproductive health services and rights.

IPS says the Bush administration, which is bending over backwards to please conservative opinion in the UNITED STATES, would like to water down the Cairo summit goals. /IPS/an

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As Ranks of Migrant Workers Swell, Demands for Protection

AFRICA: /RIGHTS/HEALTH/ /19/12/02 IPS

JOHANNESBURG - One in 10 employees in Africa are likely to work outside their countries of origin by 2010.

The rights of migrant workers need to be better protected, labour, business and government representatives from Southern Africa agreed at a seminar in Pretoria.

An Inter Press Service (IPS) report says the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is imploring the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) to sign a key ILO convention.

The 1975 Convention on Migrant Workers promotes human rights for migrant workers and sets up methods to bring migration flows under control.

Developing and co-ordinating policies would enable Southern Africa to respond to the social issues that migration raised, says the IPS report.

These include increased xenophobia (primarily in South Africa) and a brain drain within the region, and to foreign shores.

IPS says there is also the impact of migration on HIV/AIDS and the increasing ''feminisation of migration''. More and more women are becoming migrant workers. /IPS/an

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Discrimination Marks HIV Treatment in TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO: /HEALTH/RIGHTS/ /19/12/02

PORT OF SPAIN – People living with HIV/AIDS are treated as pariahs in TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, says a report from Inter Press Service (IPS).

The family of a young man suffering from the HIV virus never touch him.

When he needs to be cleaned, they hose him down with a pipe. At meal times, a plate of food is shoved towards him on the floor.

Elsewhere, a young woman was forced by a pastor to stand before a congregation and confess her HIV-positive status.

An epidemic of fear in TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO is driving HIV/AIDS underground, warns the head of the Caribbean Epidemology Centre (CAREC).

Studies done by CAREC in recent months have shown that fewer than 15 percent of people living with AIDS were receiving a proper package of care, says IPS.

What the Caribbean island nation needs are policies to end the endemic discrimination.

According to IPS, in December, Minister for Social Services Christine Kangaloo declared war on AIDS. She promised AIDS education programmes would foster respect of human rights and tolerance. /IPS/an

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