Dear colleagues,
We need your signatures to an open letter on the ongoing arrest, harassment, beating and shutdown of AIDS activists and NGOs, esp. in Asia - it's concrete and urgent, as just this week one of our Chinese colleagues has been blocked by police from going to ICAAP-Bali
Please reply to info@asiacatalyst.org with your name, title and organizational affiliation by no later than August 3rd. We will release the letter to the press in advance of ICAAP-Bali. It's fine to forward this email.
Many thanks!
In solidarity,
Meg Davis
Asia Catalyst
www.asiacatalyst.org
Michel Sidibe
Executive Director, UNAIDS
Under Secretary-General of the United Nations
Avenue Appia 20
1211 Geneva, Switzerland
August 4, 2009
Dear Mr. Sidibe:
We are writing as concerned AIDS professionals to urge UNAIDS to address the continuing restrictions on frontline AIDS nonprofit organizations in Asia. While governments state their support for the work of NGOs in fighting AIDS, many colleagues on the ground face surveillance and intimidation. In too many countries, police detain harm reduction workers, jail AIDS activists; shut down websites and the offices of grassroots AIDS organizations. UNAIDS and international donors such as the Global Fund have kept quiet in public while our colleagues are imprisoned, threatened and beaten.
We need UNAIDS to issue a strong public statement about the need for governments to lift restrictions on AIDS NGOs and to stop jailing our colleagues in Asia.
Some recent examples:
In July 2009, a Chinese AIDS advocate and person living with HIV/AIDS who was invited by UNAIDS to the International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) in Bali was prevented by police from traveling to the meeting, and warned that if he speaks to international organizations and media about his experience, he will "face the same fate as [jailed AIDS advocate] Hu Jia."
In July 2009, Yirenping, a Chinese legal aid center for people with hepatitis, was harassed by police.
In early 2009, a harm reduction worker with the Cambodian NGO Korsang was arrested by police and sent to Koh Kor, a former Khmer Rouge execution camp on an island, where she was kept for five days without charges. The facility lacked medical care, food, or basic hygiene.
In February 2009, the Malaysian AIDS Commission reported that harm reduction workers offering clean syringes are rounded up by police and RELA (the people's volunteer corps).
These are examples from the current year, but these kinds of incidents are all too common - not just in Asia, but internationally.
As you know, NGOs do essential work with the marginalized groups who are most vulnerable to the AIDS epidemic--children, women, men who have sex with men, drug users, sex workers, and ethnic minorities. Internationally, we know that outspoken AIDS advocates, especially those living with HIV, are responsible for much of the progress made in the fight against the epidemic since the 1980s.
States are bound by international human rights law to respect and protect the rights of all persons to freedom of association and freedom of expression, and numerous UN policies call on states to ensure free expression and community consultation as part of AIDS policy design.
Up to now, the international community has reacted to this pattern of arrests and detentions as if they were local problems, instead of addressing the problem proactively. Country offices of UNAIDS have been reluctant to speak out about individual cases for fear of jeopardizing access to government officials. But this is an issue that is not disappearing - government officials who repress NGOs are only emboldened by our silence.
We urge you to:
- Issue a strong public statement calling on all governments to reform policies that arbitrarily limit the registration and operation of AIDS NGOs;
- Raise these issues publicly in your country visits, so that AIDS activists know and hear of your support for their work;
- Meet in person with AIDS activists who are consistently harassed by police and the government during your country visits, to signal your support of their work;
- Press all countries, publicly and privately, to end the pattern of arrests and detention of AIDS and harm reduction workers; and
- Instruct country offices of UNAIDS to speak out, loudly and clearly, when AIDS activists are imprisoned and harassed by police.
A strong UN voice is essential to the survival of our colleagues in the field, and only a robust and free civil society will help Asia to win the war against HIV/AIDS.
Sincerely,
--
Sara L.M. Davis, Ph.D. ("Meg")
Executive Director
Asia Catalyst
www.asiacatalyst.org
www.yazhoudiaocha.com
www.songandsilence.com
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
★ 凡是挑釁、謾罵、非理性、過於情緒性、胡亂批評和無意義之言論，或是匿名人士之言論，以及所發表意見出現有不雅、粗鄙之文字等，本郵件組將不予以顯示！
★关宝英，不容你把官场蠹毒之气弥散民间社区，请引咎辞职，扼住以项目资金挟持非政府组织的邪恶之风，维护草根NGO的尊严、维护全球基金的尊严！！！
https://sites.google.com/site/guanbaoyingcizhi
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~----~----------~----~----~----~------~----
"China AIDS Group中国艾滋病网络 论坛"
A：要加入：★中国艾滋病网络 http://www.chinaaidsgroup.org
B：要在此论坛发帖，请发电子邮件到 chinaaidsgroup@googlegroups.com
C：要退订此论坛，请发邮件至 chinaaidsgroup-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
D：Contact us: chinaaidsgroup@gmail.com
★中国艾滋病博物馆/China AIDS Museum： http://www.AIDSmuseum.cn
旗下网站：
----艾博维客 AIDS Wiki ： http://www.AIDSwiki.cn
----艾博聚合（汇聚艾滋病博客）http://www.wanyanhai.org
----中国艾滋病网络：http://www.ChinaAIDSgroup.org
----中国艾滋病地图/China AIDS Map：http://www.AIDSmaps.org
----空腹健身运动：http://www.HungerStrikeforAIDS.org
----艾滋人权 AIDS Rights： http://www.AIDSrights.net
----常坤：为艾滋病防治努力一生：Http://www.changkun.org
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
没有评论:
发表评论