Brussels, 6 February 2008
Dear Sirs,
The European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG) is a pan-European network of HIV treatment activists. We are writing you to express support to an initiative launched by activists from HIVNorway.
The UN General Assembly will hold a high-level meeting on 10-11 June 2008, to review the progress of implementation of the UNGASS Declarations on HIV/AIDS. We very much appreciate and welcome the fact that the UN has invited HIV-positive people and their representing organizations to such an important meeting. Active and meaningful participation is one of the first steps in the realization of the GIPA principle (greater involvement of people living with HIV and AIDS).
However, we are seriously concerned that some of us might not be able to participate in the meeting due to existing entry regulations to the United States. The US are among 13 countries in the world that ban HIV-positive persons from entering their borders. In 2006 George W. Bush promised to lift this ban on HIV positive people. Unfortunately he has not lived up to this promise until now.
We know that some of our colleagues will not be attending the high-level meeting USA due to the discriminating and humiliating US entry policies regarding HIV positive people in place. A possible ‘waiver’ or a temporary lift of the ban would not be a satisfactory a solution, especially as the waiver envisaged would not be applicable to most of us.
In a recently published policy paper, the Governing Council of the International AIDS Society declared that it “will not hold its conferences in countries that restrict short term entry of people living with HIV/AIDS and/or require prospective HIV-positive visitors to declare their HIV status on visa application forms or other documentation required for entry into the country” (IAS Policy Paper “Banning Entry of People Living with HIV/AIDS”, 10 Dec 2007).
We very much welcome IAS’ decision and urge you to take action in a similar vein. More precisely, we call upon the United Nations to relocate the planned meeting from New York to a place where the fundamental rights of HIV-positive people are respected. In doing so, the UN would enable HIV representatives to attend the meeting and feel welcome. The United Nations would send out an important signal to the world, in the spirit of the high-level meeting itself.
We strongly feel that the existing US entry regulations imposed on HIV-positive people are discriminative in nature and that they represent a violation of human rights and fundamental public health principles. We would very much appreciate seeing the UN contribute to the fight against this violation of human rights.
