NEW UN PLAN TO BOOST HIV SERVICES TARGETS GAY MEN AND TRANSGENDER PEOPLE

NEW UN PLAN TO BOOST HIV SERVICES TARGETS GAY MEN AND TRANSGENDER PEOPLE
New York, May 15 2009 2:01PM
Two United Nations agencies are launching a plan to provide increased HIV-related information and health services to men who have sex with men and transgender populations, while stressing the need to make universal access to treatment, care and support a reality for all.

The initiative, spearheaded by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (<"http://www.unaids.org/en/">UNAIDS) and the UN Development Programme (<"http://content.undp.org/go/newsroom/2009/may/aids-responses-failing-men-who-have-sex-with-men-and-transgender-populations.en">UNDP), comes ahead of the International Day Against Homophobia, observed on 17 May.

"The case is clear and urgent," said Jeffery O'Malley, Director of UNDP's HIV group. "If we are going to make universal access for sexual minorities a meaningful reality, we must work towards ending homophobia and transphobia. We must address the legal and policy barriers."

In a news release issued today, the agencies noted that in many parts of the world, HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men is more than 20 times higher than in the general population.

In addition, studies show that HIV prevention services reach only one tenth to one third of people who engage in male homosexual activity. At the same time, there is growing evidence that the majority of new infections in many urban areas are among men who have sex with men.

"Yet, these same groups have limited access to HIV-related information and health services due to discrimination, violence, marginalization and other human rights violations," the agencies stated. "In many countries, they still face criminal sanctions and lack access to justice."

Paul De Lay, acting Deputy Executive Director at UNAIDS, stressed the need for rigorous monitoring by countries of the evolution of their epidemics, and for tailoring national responses to the needs of those most at risk.

"In many settings this will be men who have sex with men," he said, adding that responses must be based on local epidemiological and social realities to be effective.

The plan being launched – the UNAIDS Action Framework: Universal Access for Men who have Sex with Men and Transgender People – outlines several factors that impede access to HIV services, such as unwillingness on the part of governments and donors to invest in the sexual health of sexual minorities.

It also sets out how UNAIDS will work towards achieving universal access through three main objectives – improving human rights, strengthening the evidence base through better data, and reinforcing capacity and promoting partnerships to ensure broader and better responses.
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Cayman Islands: Ensure Equality for All

(New York) - The Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory, should revise a draft constitution that will be submitted to voters on May 20, 2009, to ensure that it gives full protections to all against unequal treatment, and the British government should ensure that this happens, Human Rights Watch said today in letters to the Cayman governor, Stuart Jack, and the British foreign secretary, David Miliband.

The draft constitution is being revised by the Cayman Islands government and will eliminate a free-standing guarantee of equality before the law and limit anti-discrimination protections only to rights expressly included in the constitution. This means that large and critically important areas of daily life would not be covered, including access to jobs, housing, and medical treatment. Reportedly, the government succumbed to pressure from religious groups, and the action was apparently intended to deny protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

"The British government is using a double standard, approving a draft constitution for an overseas territory that gives fewer protections than British citizens enjoy at home," said Boris O. Dittrich, advocacy director of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights program at Human Rights Watch. "Equality means equality, and it should apply across the board."

Human Rights Watch urged the British and Cayman governments to ensure that protections in the new constitution apply not only to discrimination by the state, but also to discrimination by private entities.

The new constitution will be voted on in a referendum during the territory's general elections.

Equality Cayman, a nongovernmental organization in the Cayman Islands, has strongly criticized the scope of the proposed language for section 16 in the draft constitution, stating that it offers inadequate protections against prejudice and inequality.

Human Rights Watch urged the British government to ensure that the new constitution is in line with expanding protections against discrimination in UN and European law. The United Kingdom has extended the UN human rights treaties and the European Convention on Human Rights to the Cayman Islands.

"Protecting against discrimination and promoting equality should be core purposes of a bill of rights," said Dittrich. "The territory's new constitution should not fall short of that aim."

In the Organization of American States (OAS), all member governments adopted a resolution in 2008 expressing concern over acts of violence and human rights violations committed against individuals because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. All Caribbean states surrounding the Cayman Islands are signatories to the OAS resolution.