| Faith-based and secular human rights advocates call for accountability in
US Global AIDS prevention policy
U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee offers legislation to ensure
U.S. funds comprehensive prevention
strategies worldwide
November 29, 2006 - Washington, D.C. - Today, faith-based and secular groups advocating for basic human rights
and public health approaches to HIV prevention called on Congress and the Administration to remove restrictions in U.S. global
HIV prevention programs. Civil society leaders were joined by Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-9) in an audio press conference to
highlight the need for effective HIV prevention strategies, particularly for women and girls.
"The theme of World AIDS Day 2006 is accountability," noted Jodi Jacobson, executive director of the Center for
Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), "and the new UNAIDS report cites investments in effective prevention strategies as an urgent
priority. This means ensuring that all individuals at risk have access to comprehensive HIV prevention information, training, and
methods regardless of age or marital status." It also means, Jacobson stated, "That as with every other government, the U.S. must be
held accountable to meeting the needs and promoting the basic human rights of those at greatest risk of infection."
"There is no reason why someone should be more vulnerable to AIDS because she is a woman, but the fact remains
that women and girls in developing countries are bearing the brunt of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic," said Congresswoman Barbara
Lee (CA-9).
The UNAIDS 2006 AIDS Epidemic Update reports an estimated 4.3 million new HIV infections worldwide in 2006, 400,000 more
new infections than in 2004. The highest rates of new infections are among those ages 15 to 24 and among married women in their twenties
and thirties. Two-thirds of all those infected with HIV worldwide live in sub-Saharan Africa, and women make up 60 percent of those infected
in the region. UNAIDS notes that: "Declines in national HIV prevalence are being observed in some sub-Saharan African countries, but are neither
strong enough nor widespread enough to diminish the epidemic's overall impact." The report concludes that "in many countries, HIV prevention programs
are not reaching the people most at risk of infection, such as young people, women and girls, men who have sex with men, sex workers and their clients,
injecting drug users and ethnic and cultural minorities."
"U.S. policies and funding streams are undermining, rather than supporting, efforts to prevent new infections
in other countries," stated Jacobson, "in large part because of legislative earmarks and policy restrictions that are shifting
funds to abstinence-only programs which deny individuals access to comprehensive information and services."
Seeking to remove such restrictions, Congresswoman Lee, a longtime leader on domestic and global AIDS issues,
announced plans to re-introduce the bi-partisan Protection Against Transmission of HIV for Women and Youth Act (PATHWAY Act)
when the new Congress convenes in 2007. "PATHWAY would strike the earmark requiring that 33 percent of all HIV prevention
funding be spent on abstinence-until-marriage programs and ensure that all individuals reached by U.S.-funded programs
are provided with the necessary skills, information, and methods needed to avoid HIV infection," stated Congresswoman
Lee. She cited the March 2006 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report confirming that restrictions on prevention
funding in the original legislation authorizing PEPFAR are undermining efforts to prevent the greatest number of
infections possible at the country level. "The PATHWAY Act seeks to correct these policies and ensure we fund
the strategies that work." (The full GAO report and a summary of findings from the report can be found at www.pepfarwatch.org).
The PATHWAY Act, if passed, would promote comprehensive approaches to HIV prevention, including delay of sexual
initiation among youth, while ensuring that all sexually active persons have the information and methods necessary to practice safer sex.
It would also dramatically strengthen U.S. efforts to address violence and sexual coercion, early marriage, and other factors driving high rates
of HIV infection among women and girls worldwide.
Rachel Stalnaker, a member of the International Youth Leadership Council at Advocates for Youth shared
experiences during a semester working as a peer educator in South Africa. "During my brief time in South Africa I saw the
devastating effect of HIV on children," she said. "The street corners of my town were filled with children begging for food
and money. Many of the children in the school-room where I volunteered were suffering from HIV themselves and have to survive
on their own however they can. By helping to protect the women and girls of the current generation we also help change the legacy
for the children of the next generation."
The Rev. William Sinkford, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA) and
a strong supporter of PATHWAY called on progressive faith-based organizations to advocate for evidence-based prevention
policies. Citing high rates of sexual violence and coercion among other conditions that increase women's risks,
Rev. Sinkford stated that, "Unitarian Universalists support the PATHWAY Act because it requires the Office
of the Global AIDS Coordinator to develop a comprehensive HIV prevention plan and eliminates 'abstinence-only' conditions
on HIV funding." Sinkford concluded by stating that, "Our policies must reflect the realities of people's lives. We know
that 'just say no' didn't work in the Garden of Eden, and it isn't stopping the spread of HIV today, either in the US or
abroad."
"The United States is now the world leader in total funding for HIV prevention, treatment and care," said Jacobson.
"Yet money does not equal good policy or good programs," she noted. "All evidence indicates that restrictions in US global AIDS funding
and policy guidance are undermining efforts to reach the very goals we seek to achieve," said Jacobson, "and we must all hold ourselves
accountable for doing what is necessary to save the maximum number of lives possible by changing these damaging policies."
END
The audio press conference was co-sponsored by Advocates for Youth, Artists for a New South Africa,
Catholics for a Free Choice, Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), General Board of Church & Society of The United Methodist Church,
Health GAP (Global Access Project), National Council of Jewish Women, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Religious Coalition for Reproductive
Choice, Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA).
The Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) is a US-based non-governmental organization focused on the effects of US international
policies on the health and rights of women, girls and other vulnerable populations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
http://www.genderhealth.org; http://www.pepfarwatch.org
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