The impact of HIV-related restrictions on entry, stay and residence: an annotated bibliography was commissioned by the International Task Team on HIV-related Travel Restrictions. The Task Team was established by UNAIDS in January 2008 as an advisory/technical group whose role was to galvanize attention to such restrictions on national, regional and international agendas, calling for and supporting efforts towards their elimination. The principles of non-discrimination and the greater involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS Principle formed the core of the Task Team’s work and provided the context in which its efforts were set.

The impact of HIV-related restrictions on entry, stay and residence: an annotated bibliography was commissioned by the International Task Team on HIV-related Travel Restrictions. The Task Team was established by UNAIDS in January 2008 as an advisory/technical group whose role was to galvanize attention to such restrictions on national, regional and international agendas, calling for and supporting efforts towards their elimination. The principles of non-discrimination and the greater involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS Principle formed the core of the Task Team’s work and provided the context in which its efforts were set.

Despite remarkable recent successes in the global response to HIV, punitive laws, policies, practices, stigma and human rights violations (see Annex) are threatening progress towards universal access targets and the Millennium Development Goals. Successful strategies for HIV prevention, treatment, care and support require supportive legal, regulatory and social environments that advance human rights, gender equality and social justice goals. Punishing and stigmatizing environments, in contrast, can increase people’s vulnerability to HIV infection, reduce access to and use of HIV services and other health and social services, discourage individual behaviour change, and increase the impact of HIV on people already living with the virus and on their families and communities.

I am speaking today on the human rights of men who have sex with men and the UNAIDS perspective. Let me start by saying that UNAIDS does not have formal oversight of any human rights treaty, like UNICEF, but like any UN agency, UNAIDS is accountable for respecting and promoting the principles of the UN Charter. For the staff, the Standards of Conduct for the International Civil Service, paragraph 3, state that “The values that are enshrined in the United Nations organizations must also be those that guide international civil servants in all their actions: fundamental human rights, social justice, the dignity and worth of the human person and respect for the equal rights of men and women and of nations great and small.”

8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific

Speech by Dr Meskerem Grunitzky-Bekele, Director of the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for West and Central Africa

It troubles me greatly to say that caring societies are in recession. We are bombarded with news and reports of increasingly terrible acts perpetuated on women. In South Africa according the Medical Research Council of Cape Town University, one in four women report being abused by an intimate partner – and every six hours a woman is killed. In the UK according to the British Crime Survey, a reported 80,000 women suffer rape every year2. Research from a number of countries confirms what seems common sense: there is a strong relationship between intimate partner violence and HIV status.

I deeply regret not being with you at this momentous event which brings more than 2,500 people together with a common goal—to end AIDS. Momentous because it takes place when we are at a cross-roads of the AIDS response.

I thank Chairman Howard Berman and Congresswoman Barbara Lee for their leadership on this issue. I would also like to thank the “MSM Policy Working Group” of the Global AIDS Roundtable for organizing this Forum and inviting me to say a few words. I am honoured to share the platform with my good friend Ambassador Eric Goosby, who brings extensive experience working with the gay community’s early response to the epidemic and San Francisco and to all of you working on the front lines.

BY: Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS DATE: 01 December, 2009 PLACE: Pretoria Showgrounds, Pretoria, South Africa OCCASION: Commemoration of World AIDS Day South Africa’s Reinvigorated AIDS Response