The right to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support for migrants and ethnic minorities in Europe: The community perspective 2007-2008

Partners

Collaborative partner - Grupo de Activistas VIH/SIDA (GAT), Portugal

Summary

Migrants (documented and undocumented) and ethnic minorities 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) was held under the overall theme of Migrations. The Portuguese Presidency organised a European Conference on Health and Migrations: “For an inclusive society” (5-6 July 2007), as well as a Meeting of the national AIDS coordinators from Europe53 and its Neighbouring Countries on “HIV and Migrations” (12-13 October 2007). The community did not want miss this opportunity to pro-actively influence the political agenda on Migration and HIV in Europe and EATG and GAT organised a community conference (June 7-8 2007, Lisbon). Special areas of concern for the community include vulnerable migrant populations such as trafficked women, sex workers and prisoners, as well as ethnic minorities (Roma, Russian-speaking people outside of the Russian Federation, African/Black Diaspora, etc).
The Community Recommendations were developed within the follow-up of the conference, as an advocacy tool for improvement of policies and services in relation to mobility and HIV. It targets stakeholders in migration and HIV/AIDS, such as policy makers, service providers, advocates, multilateral agencies, researchers etc. The document is released in English and Russian. A second follow-up step is the collaboration with the Correlation Network for the organisation of the Correlation Conference in Sofia. A third follow-up step is the development of outlines of an advocacy instrument listing epidemiological, public health, economic and human rights arguments for providing universal access to prevention, treatment and care to all HIV affected groups in WHO Europe 53.

What

• Community Recommendations paper adopted by the Civil Society Forum
• 2 conferences
• A community conference (June 7-8 2007, Lisbon)
• Correlation Conference (October 2008, Sofia)
• Advocacy activities resulting in EU Council for Ministries of Health agreeing to a meeting with aids coordinators from Europe 53 countries and North Africa every two years to assess where they are in terms of the Dublin Declaration agreements
• Outlines for a paper on ‘Benefits of Universal Access to HIV Prevention, Care and Treatment for Vulnerable Populations’ are defined

Contact

EATG Secretariat - Smiljka De Lussigny

Luís Mendão – Member and Board of Directors at GAT