Hundreds of angry people living with HIV and AIDS activists marched
through the Messe Wien conference center in Vienna, Austria the site
of the 2010 International AIDS Conference on Sunday where they staged
a mass die-in.
Red Umbrellas were carried by a group of the activists. The sound of
Vuvuzelas, sirens and whistles were heard amongst chanting of slogans
'Governments count pennies, Africa counts graves", Stop silencing sex
workers", You made a promise, now make it happen",
What year is it, 2010?"
The activists intended to delay the Opening ceremony of the Conference
to illustrate how governments around the world are slowing and scaling
back their commitments toward Universal Access to HIV care, treatment
and prevention.
Tombstones, held to remind conference attendees of the 15 million
people who are in immediate need of treatment, read "Broken Promises
Kill, No Retreat,Fund AIDS."
Recently, the U.S. and European governments have pulled back in their
support for AIDS care, treatment and prevention and to the fact that
governments in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe, have failed to live
up to their commitment to fund AIDS treatment and other health needs
as laid out in the Abuja Declaration.
The Global Fund (GFATM), the world's response to the AIDS crisis,
was forced to adopt 10% budget cuts to the first 2 years of funding,
and 25% cuts to for the last 3 years.
Michael Gwaba from the Zambia Community Initiative for Tuberculosis,
HIV/AIDS & Malaria (CITAM+) and the Here I Am Campaign, said, "There
remains a huge funding gap for Round 10, opened in May 2010, which
will result in countries scaling back programs and resisting
investment in activities with recurrent costs, such as hiring
desperately needed health workers or enrolling new patients in treatment.
In 2010, the U.S. Congress paid $1.05 billion to the GFATM which is
$1.7billion less than the U.S. fair share. For 2011, President Obama
proposed to cut funding to only $1 billion, even though at least $2
billion is needed from the US to begin to close the GFATM's funding
gap.
"The African Union countries have failed to live up to their Abuja
commitments on health, and our finance ministers recently suggested
that these spending targets should be dismissed altogether. Already,
access to HIV treatment is being cut back.
Waiting lists are growing",she said.
Despite their repeated rhetorical recognition that investment in
health is critical for socio-economic development, governments around
the world are retreating from their commitments particularly with
regards to universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care,"
said Paula Akugizibwe from ARASA.
There are many important discussions that will take place during the
International AIDS Conference. However, in order for any of those
discussions to have any relevance, all conferees must first address
the growing crisis in funding for AIDS care and prevention said,
Mabel Takana, an AIDS activist with Health GAP from Cameroon.
The Opening Ceremony of the Conference also focused on three plenary
presentations of the state of the epidemic setting the stage for
discussions on the theme "Rights Here, Rights Now".
