The Network of Guyanese Living with and Affected by HIV-AIDS (G+) and Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) join the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC) and the Caribbean Treatment Action Group (CTAG), two regional groups bringing together organisations working in HIV and AIDS, in calling for greater access to HIV medication, care and support for all persons infected with HIV in the Caribbean, particularly for those from socially marginalised groups. Among these groups are sex workers, men who have sex with men, drug users, prisoners, youth in especially difficult circumstances, and children who have lost one or more parent to AIDS-related illnesses.
Through the United Nations General Assembly Special Session plus Five (UNGASS+5) Political Declaration on HIV-AIDS, all governments, including the Guyana government:
“29. Commit to intensify efforts to enact, strengthen or enforce, as appropriate, legislation, regulations and other measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination against and to ensure the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by people living with HIV and members of vulnerable groups… and develop strategies to combat stigma and social exclusion connected with the epidemic.â€
At a November meeting in Bayahibe in the Dominican Republic, the groups concluded that while access to care and treatment for HIV has improved in the Caribbean, it has been limited or non-existent for members of socially marginalised groups who are especially vulnerable to the impact of HIV because of stigma and discrimination. CVC and CTAG have released a joint statement outlining the framework within which effective and meaningful HIV treatment and support might take place in Caribbean countries.
Dubbed the "˜Bayahibe Declarationâ", the document calls on Caribbean governments, regional and international health authorities, and international donors to take immediate action to redress the problem of access to drugs and support faced by members of marginalised groups infected with or affected by HIV. It also provides a roadmap by which national governments, civil society actors, service providers and human rights defenders can assure all persons living with HIV in the Caribbean of proper care, treatment and support. CVC and CTAG believe that in this way, members of these groups can realise their fundamental human rights to life and health.
Among the elements the groups present as essential to improving access to treatment and support for HIV positive persons, especially those who are socially marginalised, are the assurance that all persons in detention, including foreign nationals, are informed of their right to obtain HIV-related information and services; the assurance that health care providers treat drug users with respect, and provide appropriate and non-discriminatory health care services; the education and sensitisation of children and youth regarding their human rights and the steps to take to report physical, sexual and other cases of abuse; the training of health care workers to provide effective services for men who have sex with men; the execution of programmes that aim to eradicate homophobia and heterosexism; the training of service providers at treatment sites in the human rights of sex workers; and the building or expansion of outreach facilities in areas where sex work is common.
The declaration was signed by individuals and agencies working in different speech communities across the Caribbean including representatives of both G+ and SASOD.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Bayahibe Declaration
November 2006
Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition
&
Caribbean Treatment Action Group
In recent years, the international community has taken important initiatives to scale up access to lifesaving antiretroviral therapy, especially in the developing world. Although these initiatives have fallen short of their targets, in the Caribbean, the region with the second highest infection rate in the world, they have generated essential political and financial support for making medication available at no or reduced cost, which has been critical to increasing the life expectancy of people living with HIV in the region.
The benefits, however, have not been equitably distributed. The widespread discrimination and abuse faced by members of socially marginalised groups -- sex workers, men who have sex with men, drug users, prisoners, young people in especially difficult circumstances, children who have lost one or more parent to AIDS -- heighten their risk of HIV infection, and impede their access to care and treatment where they are living with the disease. In this regard, their marginalised status compounds the stigma and discrimination they face because of HIV, and compromises or effectively bars their access to treatment.
This declaration, made in Bayahibe, Dominican Republic, in November 2006, calls for immediate action by Caribbean governments, regional and international health authorities, and international donors to correct the situation. This declaration also provides a roadmap for national governments, civil society actors, service providers and human rights defenders to ensure that all people living with HIV in the Caribbean can obtain proper care, treatment and support, and therefore realise their fundamental human rights to life and health.
Thus, cognisant of the urgent need to ensure effective and meaningful access to antiretroviral treatment for people in the Caribbean whose immune systems have been compromised by HIV;
Firmly resolved that states must take immediate steps to ensure equal access to treatment for all persons living with HIV as part of their obligations to protect the human right to health; and
Calling on duty-bearers mandated to provide health care and to protect the health and human rights of all people in the Caribbean,
We declare the following to be essential steps to be taken:
For people in Caribbean correctional facilities or other places of detention
1. Ensure all persons in detention, including foreign nationals, are informed of their right to obtain HIV-related information and services in a language they understand (this should include training and other assistance for family and community members who are part of an individual’s support system);
2. Ensure that all persons in detention, including detained foreign nationals, have prompt, adequate medical assessment on entry into custody, and access to essential medical treatment (patients should receive at least the same standard of care that could be expected for persons outside of the prison system) and guarantee a continuation of any medical treatment that began prior to incarceration;
3. Ensure the development, dissemination and adoption of written HIV policies that address
i. confidentiality
ii. attitudes of prison staff
3. staff training on HIV and
4. scheduled access by civil society groups;
4. Promote “through care†by allowing access to the prison by civil society groups;
5. Ensure that community boards monitoring prisoners’ rights include at least one person knowledgeable about HIV-related issues;
6. Ensure access to appropriate services for women (including gynaecological health services);
7. Ensure confidentiality and privacy with respect to all medical services;
8. Ensure adequate nutrition for all detainees and inmates.
For drug users in the Caribbean
1. Ensure that health care providers treat drug users with respect, and provide appropriate and non-discriminatory health care services;
2. Ensure that rehabilitation and other support centres for people who use drugs incorporate HIV-related services such as prevention and testing;
3. Provide support services for pregnant women who use drugs and their children, including post-delivery services and programmes for the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV;
4. Sensitise and educate all service providers at addiction treatment sites about HIV- prevention and testing and the need to incorporate such services into their drug treatment programme;
5. Ensure that programmes and policies for people who use drugs are informed by research and other evidence (including research on barriers to access to health care services for drug users; use of peer educators to provide education and information) and are not driven by condemnatory, moralistic attitudes;
6. Identify, support and pay peer educators to facilitate access to treatment;
7. Ensure access for drug users to public health facilities;
8. Promote a harm reduction and public health approach to addressing drug use, including support for alternatives to incarceration for drug users;
9. Promote continuity of treatment and social assistance for drug users (e.g., on entry into and exit from custody).
For young people in especially difficult circumstances, including orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV in the Caribbean
1. Incorporate representatives of the youth community who are recommended and approved by local youth organisations at all levels of decision-making related to HIV/AIDS policy and implementation;
2. Establish children/youth advisory boards that will identify the needs and issues of concern to children/youth and that will guide programme development, including training for all children and youth in preparation for meaningful employment;
3. Conduct sensitisation, education and life skills training programmes about the process of disclosure for parents/caregivers of children who are HIV positive;
4. Educate and sensitise children and youth about their human rights and empower them to take necessary the steps to report physical, sexual and other cases of abuse;
5. Create an awareness of the need for redress for children and youth who have been denied access to treatment;
6. Ensure the legal system adequately addresses issues of abuse of youth and children;
7. Train children and youth to become adherence counsellors, peer educators, and advocates for the rights of children, and create opportunities for the utilisation of their skills;
8. Sensitise and educate all legal service providers about how to provide adequate legal services to children and youth;
9. Train children and youth to interact and effectively communicate with the media;
10. Engage children and youth in all areas of decision- and policy-making that affect their lives.
For men who have sex with men in the Caribbean
1. Incorporate representatives of the Caribbean men who have sex with men (MSM) community who are recommended and approved by local MSM organisations at all levels of decision-making related to HIV/AIDS policy and implementation;
2. Train health care personnel to effectively and affectively provide services for MSM;
3. Develop an internal MSM-community referral system to friendly health care facilities and service providers;
4. Execute programmes that aim to eradicate homophobia and heterosexism;
5. Repeal ‘sodomy’ laws to create a policy environment that is conducive for MSM to access all health care services;
6. Ensure access to treatment for HIV-positive MSM who are incarcerated, young or from rural areas;
7. Establish support groups for HIV-positive MSM which include their partners, families and friends to promote adherence;
8. Sensitise faith-based organisations, religious leaders, politicians, policy makers and legislators about the destructive impact of homophobia;
9. Incorporate these recommendations as part of national and regional level policies which promote human rights and the exercise of citizenship without stigma and discrimination of any kind, in particular for sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
Sex workers in the Caribbean
1. Incorporate representatives of the sex work community who are recommended and approved by local sex work organisations at all levels of decision-making related to HIV/AIDS policy and implementation;
2. Train service providers at treatment sites in human rights of sex workers;
3. Offer comprehensive services, including VCT, to sex workers at all clinics;
4. Build and expand outreach facilities in areas where sex work is common;
5. Establish comprehensive referral system for adherence support;
6. Provide language assistance to foreign sex workers at clinic sites;
7. Provide confidential counselling for HIV positive sex workers;
8. Ensure HIV-positive sex workers who are sick have access to social services, education, and condom distribution regardless of residency status;
9. Provide equal access to services for brothel and street sex workers;
10. Ensure the non-disclosure of the sero-status of sex workers to others, including brothel owners;
11. Scale up treatment and care for sex workers beyond the brothel;
12. Ensure human rights protection for sex workers, including protection against sexual exploitation;
13. Decriminalise sex work.
Signed,
Carlos Adón
Instituto Dominicano de Estudios Virológicos
Dominican Republic
Moisés Agosto
Tides Foundation
Puerto Rico
Juanita Altenberg
Maxi Linder Association
Suriname
Harry Beauvais
Foundation for Reproductive Health and Family Education
Haiti
Robert Best
United Gays and Lesbians Against AIDS Barbados
Barbados
Dusilley Cannings
Network of Guyanese Living With and Affected by HIV/AIDS
Guyana
Robert Carr
Caribbean Centre for Communication for Development
Caribbean Institute for Media and Communication
University of the West Indies
Jamaica
Milton Castelen
National AIDS Program
Suriname
Veronica Cenac
AIDS Action Foundation
Saint Lucia
Rachel Charles
Hope PALS Network
Grenada
Marcus Day
Caribbean Drug Abuse Research Institute
Saint Lucia
Joan Didier
AIDS Action Foundation
Saint Lucia
Novlet Dougherty-Reid
Jamaica AIDS Support for Life
Jamaica
Olive Edwards
Jamaica Network of Seropositives
Jamaica
Keenan Ferreira
Life Goes On
Dominica
Patricia Figueroa
Caribbean Treatment Action Group
Puerto Rico
Devon Gabouriel
United Belize Advocacy Movement
Belize
Philipa GarcÃa
Alianza Solidaria para el VIH/SIDA
Dominican Republic
Tamico Gilbert
Bahamas Human Rights
Amnesty International
Bahamian Friends of the Cuban Five
Bahamas
Mario Kleinmoedig
Orguyo
Curaçao
Steeve Laguerre
SeroVie
Haiti
Rohan A. Lewis
Board Member
Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition
Jamaica
Rosáura Lopez
Puerto Rico Concra
Puerto Rico
Deborah Manning
Board Member,
Caribbean Vulnerable Communities
Jamaica
Ian McKnight
Jamaica AIDS Support for Life
Jamaica
Aimé Charles Nicholas
Formation Interventions Recherche sur le Sida et les Toxicomanies Caraïbe
Départements français d’Amérique (Martinique, Guadeloupe and Guyane)
Caleb Orozco
United Belize Advocacy Movement
Belize
Ricky Pascoe
Board Member
Caribbean Network of Seropositives
Ethel Pengel
Mamio Namen Project
Suriname
Johane Philogène
Foundation for Reproductive Health and Family Education
Haiti
Sissaoui Pierre
Entr’aides Guyane
French Guyana
Nastassia Rambarran
Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination
Guyana
Leonardo Sánchez
Amigos Siempre Amigos
Dominican Republic
Joel Simpson
Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination
Guyana
Yvonne Sobers
Families Against State Terrorism
Jamaica
Jonathan Waters
Red Voluntarios de Amigos Siempre Amigos
Dominican Republic
Solomon Wedderley
AIDS Foundation of The Bahamas
Bahamas National Network for Positive Living (BNN+)
Bahamas
Gareth Williams
Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-sexuals and Gays
Jamaica
No comments:
Post a Comment