Greene County Democrat

Tag: UNAIDS

  • Newswire : U.N. observes ‘zero discrimination day’while anti-gay laws spread across Africa

    African demonstrators for LGBTQ rights

    Mar. 4, 2024 (GIN) – Forced evictions, loss of jobs, increased violence and other human rights abuses are being reported across Africa, worrying U.N. agencies and other watchdog groups around the world.
     
    Since a harsh new bill was passed in Ghana, 12 UN agencies issued an unprecedented joint statement on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender & intersex people.
     
    “There is an urgent need to remove laws which harm people’s rights and bring in laws which uphold the rights of every person… The recent global push-back against the human rights of LGBTQ people, against sexual and reproductive health and rights, against democracy and against civic space is not only a threat to everyone’s freedom, but a threat to everyone’s health,” declared the founders of Zero Discrimination Day at the United Nations.
     
    March 1, a day of activism was established by UNAIDS a decade ago. But, despite improvements in some societies, attacks on the rights of women and girls, of LGBTQ+ people and of other marginalized communities are increasing.
     
    “Gender equality is still a long way off, but we know that progress is possible,” said the U.N. group. “Only 60 years ago, the majority of women globally could not vote or even have a bank account in their own name.”
     
    Zero Discrimination Day was first celebrated on March 1, 2014, when it was launched by UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé with a major event in Beijing. 
    “Through upholding rights for all, we will be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and secure a safer, fairer, kinder, and happier world,” said Winnie Byanyima, formerly executive director of UNAIDS and Oxfam International.
     
    Some 31 countries still criminalize consensual same-sex sexual activity, despite the clear contradiction with established African Union and international human rights standards.
     
    In Uganda, for instance,  the situation has worsened with passage of the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2023.  One of the harshest of its kind in Africa, the bill still has to be validated by the president before entering into law.
     
    But the legislation is widely supported in Ghana, where Akufo-Addo has said gay marriage will never be allowed while he is in power.
     
    Commonly referred to as the anti-gay bill, it was sponsored by a coalition comprising Christian, Muslim, and Ghanaian traditional leaders.
     
    A human rights coalition known as the Big 18, an umbrella group of lawyers and activists in Ghana, has condemned the bill which imposes a prison sentence of three to five years for the “willful promotion, sponsorship, or support of LGBTQ+ activities”.
     
    “You can’t criminalize a person’s identity and that’s what the bill is doing and it’s absolutely wrong,” said Takyiwaa Manuh, a member of the coalition.
     
    But opposition lawmaker Sam George, the main sponsor of the bill, urged Akufo-Addo to approve it.
     
    “There is nothing that deals with LGBTQ better than this bill that has been passed by parliament. We expect the president to walk his talk and be a man of his words,” George said.
     
    Amnesty International is calling on African states and governments to publicly acknowledge and protect the human rights of all people equally without discrimination. They must also repeal or refrain from efforts to criminalize consensual same-sex conduct, as such legislation cannot comply with international or regional human rights standards and basic principles of human dignity and equality. 
     

  • Black people are still in the dark when it comes to HIV

    By Angelo C. Louw (NNPA Newswire Guest Columnist)

    angelolouw_3089_web120Angelo C. Louw is the former editor-in-chief of South Africa’s largest youth magazine, UNCUT. He is currently a Fulbright/Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow based at the University of Maryland.

    With new infection rates and AIDS-related deaths on a decline globally, it seems we are finally gaining ground in the fight to end the epidemic. However, an alarming world trend in new HIV infections suggests that Black people have been left by the wayside.

    In an open letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the L.A.-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation noted that while African-Americans made up a mere 12 percent of the total U.S. population, they accounted for close to half of new infections in the country. Yet, only one in every ten people on Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a drug which has been proven to be effective in preventing the spread of HIV, were Black.

    “We call on you to re-balance your prevention efforts to align with what patients want and need so that we can achieve better success in preventing new infections,” the letter said.

    As an HIV-prevention campaigner, I know very well the struggle of addressing the “wants and needs” of people who are most likely to get HIV. Sometimes healthcare workers are guilty of making broad assumptions about their daily lives — I suppose, a consequence of the shoestring budgets at our disposal.

    “Black African men and women are advised to have an HIV test and a regular HIV and STI screen if having unprotected sex with new or casual partners,” suggests HIV in UK – Situation Report 2015 for targeted HIV-prevention messaging.

    This report found that even in the U.K., where White people make up the larger population of people living with HIV, Black people were more likely to contract HIV, because it was much more prevalent in that minority population.

    However, making sweeping assumptions about Black sexuality is counterproductive and it also feeds into the social stigma that is attached to the virus, a major driver of HIV, deterring people from seeking healthcare and family planning, because of what others might say.

    Growing up in what has been dubbed the world’s HIV capital, South Africa, I am all too familiar with false, racist rhetoric blaming high HIV prevalence in Back people on wayward sexual behaviors. The fact of the matter is, as Brazilian researcher Kia Caldwell points out, HIV is spread due to socio-economic circumstance and not bad sex habits.

    In a 2016 report on how HIV affects Afro-Brazilian females, Caldwell stressed the need for an intersectional approach to HIV research and health policy in her home country, which saw a decline in new HIV infections in all population groups, but Black females. She blames the Afro-Brazilian experience of HIV on widespread poverty and violence, and a lack of access to healthcare and employment, perpetuated by structural bias based on skin color.

    The South African Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute noted this exact experience in its 2013 study of access to healthcare in South Africa. It found while healthcare services are available, poor Black people were less likely to visit local clinics as it often meant a day of unpaid leave, a precarious proposition for a casual employee.

    A researcher friend working in rural South Africa once told me that for a lot of men-who-sleep-with-men in these more remote communities, access to a safe setting for sex was hard to come by, let alone condoms or the time to find them. They struggle to have sex safely, even if they wanted to.

    The intricacies in the way HIV affects different groups of people can no longer be ignored, if we are to achieve UNAIDS 90-90-90 goals by 2020. The inclusion of local voices in HIV research, messaging and advocacy is essential — and I am not the only one who thinks so.

    UNAIDS states in its 2016 global HIV update: “Beneath this global figure lies multiple disparities—across regions, within countries, between men and women and young and old, and among specific populations being left behind. These disparities must be addressed in order to achieve the reductions required to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030.”

    If we are to stop the spread of HIV, we need to understand the real reasons why it’s still spreading in certain communities. To that end, including the voices of those most at risk is vital.