Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania
NOUMEA, New Caledonia – Scheduled for December 1st, the theme for World AIDS Day 2009 has been announced: “Universal Access and Human Rights.” This theme “strikes at the heart” of what perhaps is the single largest challenge faced by people living in the Pacific Island countries.
Under the theme of this year’s World AIDS Day, global leaders have pledged to work towards universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and care. These rights have been recognized has fundamental human rights.
These leaders emphasize that the protection of human rights is fundamental to combating the global HIV and AIDS epidemic. Violations against human rights fuel the spread of HIV. By promoting individual human rights, leaders hope to prevent the spread of HIV.
Michel Sidib, the Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), stated: “Achieving universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support is a human rights imperative. It is essential that the global response to the AIDS epidemic is grounded in human rights and that discrimination and punitive laws against those most affected by HIV are removed.”
Many countries still have laws and policies that impede access to HIV services and criminalize those most vulnerable to HIV. Many of these laws discriminate people who are infected with HIV and prevent them from moving freely and from working.
An example of such a country is New Caledonia, home to a Fiji native named Pita.
Pita faces the most difficult challenge that many other Pacific Islanders face today. Pita is a 30-year-old male who tested positive for HIV three years ago.
When explaining the hardships that he faces, Pita stated: “Life hasn’t been rosy. Even in the hospital, I experienced how people living with HIV are constantly discriminated against and stigmatized. To this day, such discrimination stops me from revealing my positive status to anyone.”
When the theme for the World AIDS Day theme was announced, Pita expressed how the theme “focuses on issues close to [his] heart.”
“To me being HIV positive doesn’t mean others should point the finger. As humans we still have equal rights to live. The World AIDS Day campaign is a call to those in power throughout the Pacific to work together to revise laws, activities and cultural practices that discriminate against people living with HIV and those living on the edge.”
Other leaders that support the campaign include Dr. Jimmy Rodgers, who is the Director-General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC).
“The everyday increase in discrimination against our fellow human beings just because they seem different is the not the Pacific way. Whether a colleague or someone we encounter is a member of a sexual minority, a sex worker or a person living with HIV should make no difference. Every person has equal rights and should be embraced with the same level of respect.”
Currently, only a few Pacific Islands have laws that specifically protect the rights of people living with HIV. These countries include Papua New Guinea, French Territories, and Pohnpei State. Fiji is in the process of drafting a regulation specific to HIV, while other countries, such as Palau, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu, are considering amending their Public Health Acts or developing other comprehensive legislation.
Most countries still have laws that discriminate against men who have sex with men and against sex workers.
For more information, please see:
Islands Business – Universal Access ad Human RIghts is the international theme for World AIDS Day 2009 – 20 November 2009
Pacific Islands News Association – Universal Access and Human Rights is the international theme for World AIDS Day 2009 – 20 November 2009
Trading Markets – Universal Access and Human Rights is the international theme for World AIDS Day 2009 – 20 November 2009
Zibb – Universal Access and Human Rights is the international theme for World AIDS Day 2009 – 20 November 2009
Avert – World AIDS Day 2009: Universal Access and Human Rights – 06 November 2009
Caleidoscop – 2009 World AIDS Day Theme Launched – Universal access and human rights – 03 November 2009
