China Red Ribbon Beijing Forum: Chinese Government and Civil Society Join Hands in Responding to AIDS, a Further Sign of the Strengthening of China’s AIDS Response
Beijing, 5th July, 2010 – The China Red Ribbon Beijing Forum was launched today to bring together government and civil society in a long-term partnership to offer innovative ideas from a rights-based perspective and strengthen the national response to HIV and AIDS. The Forum, which is the first such joint approach to HIV in China, held its inaugural meeting, attended by Vice Minister of Health Yin Li and representatives of civil society organizations.
Vice Minister Yin Li said, “The Chinese government places great importance on the AIDS response, and national leaders are setting a strong example in advocating and driving all sectors of society to protect the human rights of people living with HIV and AIDS, reducing stigma and discrimination and leading the way forward. The government has set out specific requirements in a range of policies and regulations.”
Vice Minister Yin Li addresses the Forum
Dr. Wang Longde, president of the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association and chair of the Forum’s Interim Steering Committee noted, “Only by adopting a people-centred approach, by ensuring the protection of people’s rights, can strategies and measures in our AIDS response be fully implemented, the scope of our response be expanded, and the lives of those living with or affected by HIV be improved.”
The Red Ribbon Forum’s Interim Steering Committee is composed of 14 members, including representatives from government and civil society, who will aim to use their extensive collective experience to strengthen China’s AIDS response. The interim committee will be replaced after a year by a Steering Committee whose membership will be chosen through in-depth consultation with civil society and other stakeholders.
“Around the world, there is a realization by governments and civil society alike that each needs to work with the other as true and equal partners in the fight against AIDS, each leaning on the other, each learning from the other,” noted interim committee member Thomas Cai, founder of AIDS Care China whose work has been honoured both internationally and at home. “This Forum should and will be more than just rhetoric. Yes, there is skepticism about whether the Forum is truly going to make a difference, or if it’s more show than substance. But by using HIV as an ‘experiment’, if you will, the aim is to strengthen the rights-based approach that serves as our context.”
Forum speakers answer questions from the floor
In launching the Forum, the very definition of a rights-based approach was debated. “When it comes to HIV, many people, not just in China but the world over, see it as just another disease, to be responded to with medication and care,” explained Professor Qiu Renzong, member of the interim committee and Professor at the China Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Philosophy. “We’ve seen so clearly that HIV is more than just a virus. It’s an issue that cuts across society and culture, health and politics, economics and development. Ultimately, a country’s capacity to tackle AIDS hinges on the inclusion of civil society -- organizations and individuals who can share real life experience, providing ideas and thoughts that can better inform policy makers about how best we as a nation can respond.”
Issues discussed during the inaugural meeting of the Forum included how the law can be crafted and used to protect the rights of those vulnerable to, or living with, HIV; how stigma and discrimination can be addressed; and how rights-based approaches can be employed to strengthen HIV prevention efforts across China.
“As a person living with HIV, and long speaking openly about it despite the stigma that continues to prevail, I am very encouraged by this forum and proud to be on its Interim Steering Committee,” said He Tiantian, representing the Women’s Network Against AIDS, a compendium of grassroots women’s organizations. “For the first time in China, we representatives from civil society – those most affected by HIV – have a real opportunity to discuss key issues on human rights and HIV with government, and have an impact on policies and laws that affect, and will affect, millions.”
International observers and supporters of the Forum are encouraged. “Experience has proven beyond a doubt that the most effective responses to HIV are those which protect the rights of those living with HIV and those who are most vulnerable to infection. If we treat these individuals as criminals, we drive them underground, out of reach of prevention, treatment and care,” said Michael Kirby, the renowned AIDS activist and former Australian High Court Justice, who addressed the inaugural meeting.
UNAIDS Country Coordinator Mark Stirling
“The challenge now will be to translate these important efforts into real action,” said Mark Stirling, UNAIDS Country Coordinator for China in discussing the next steps forward. “Forum delegates have highlighted a number of areas that need to be prioritized.”
These areas include:
· Incorporating a rights-based approach and “rights and interests” component into China’s next HIV/AIDS Five Year Action Plan (2011-2015);
· Recommending that compliance with the anti-discrimination clauses of the 2006 AIDS Regulation need to be enforced and monitored, and a legal audit be conducted to assess where conflicting laws need to be revised or removed;
· Creating a standardised framework to address compensation for HIV infection through contaminated blood products or the selling of blood, a long-standing and sensitive issue causing immense human suffering and injustice;
· Strengthening dialogue with the Ministries of Health, Public Security and Justice to examine how harm reduction work could be improved to reduce the risks of infection of injecting drug users, sex workers and men who have sex with men, recognising that criminalisation or stigmatization of these populations have blocked the scale up of effective interventions;
· Facilitating civil society’s participation and contribution at all levels of the AIDS response, including the need for registration and legal recognition of non-governmental and community-based organisations.
“What’s happening here today is truly significant, and we shouldn’t underestimate its importance,” concluded Steve Kraus, Director, UNAIDS Regional Support Team Asia-Pacific. “Partnership between government and civil society, fostering candid and open debate, is critical to success for all national AIDS programmes. Its very establishment shows China’s progressive leadership in addressing the spread of HIV. As the first platform of its kind in this vast land, it marks another milestone in the battle against AIDS.”
Media Contact:
Zhuang Tao/Xiao Yujie | Chinese Association of STD/AIDS Prevention and Control | +86 10 8315 3187 / 6303 4521 | lthsd@sina.cn
Guy Taylor | UNAIDS China | +86 10 8532 2226 | taylorg@unaids.org
Address: 2-8-1, Tayuan Diplomatic Office Building
14, Liangmahe Nanlu, Dongwai Dajie
Beijing, 100600, P.R. China
Tel: (8610) 8532 2226
Fax: (8610) 8532 2228
email: china@unaids.org