The right to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support for migrants and ethnic minorities in Europe: The community perspective.

European conference in Lisbon, Portugal

Rationale
Migrants, both documented and undocumented, and ethnic minorities encounter serious problems in Europe 53 and Europe’s neighbouring countries since they are especially vulnerable to HIV infection. Many obstacles to adequate HIV prevention, treatment, care and support (PTCS) for these populations still exist.

The Portuguese EU Presidency (July-December 2007) will be held under the overall theme of migration. The Presidency will organise a European Conference on Health and Migrations: ”For an inclusive society“ (September 27-28, 2007), as well as a meeting of the national AIDS coordinators from Europe 53 and its neighbouring countries on ”HIV and Migrations“ (October 12-13, 2007).

Special areas of concern for the community include vulnerable migrant populations such as trafficked women, sex workers, as well as ethnic minorities.

Goals

Bringing together the relevant stakeholders from the community, policy makers, public health authorities and institutions to ensure concrete commitments towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support for migrants and ethnic minorities in Europe 53 and neighbouring countries;
Get all actors to recognise the link between human rights and universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support;
To emphasise universal access as the most effective and evidence based public health tool to curb the epidemic. European politicians and decision makers have to recognise that access to health care is a fundamental human right that needs concrete commitments.

Description
This international two day conference will be held in Lisbon June 7-8 2007 at the National Institute for Tropical Diseases. 150 participants, including community networks, health authorities, EC policy makers and politicians are expected to participate.

The European conference will be followed by a national conference on local Portuguese migrants issues, organised by GAT.

Languages

The official conference languages are English and Portuguese.

Simultaneous translation to Russian will be provided.

Programme

Participants

Support & collaboration
A number of local and international institutions support this event:

Local

Alto Comissariado para a Saúde and Coordenação Nacional para a Infecção VIH/sida
Institute for Tropical Medicine of Lisbon, IHMT/UNL
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian

International

Presentations - download

Preliminary outcomes of the breakout sessions:

Articles about the event

Migration and HIV/AIDS: Community recommendations