7th ICAAP in Kobe, Postponed to 2005

[Guest guest]

Dear all,

(PLEASE NOTE: I wrote this message as my personal message as a member of Africa

Japan Forum, the NGO I belong, to inform the updated situation on the problem

of the postponement of 7th ICAAP).

Dr. Tadamitsu Kishimoto, the chair of the 7th International Conference on AIDS

in Asia and Pacific (ICAAP) sent his message for the members of Local organizing

Committee (LOC) of ICAAP that he received the letter of the

chair of AIDS Society of Asia and the Pacific (ASAP), which has the right

to decide the venue of ICAAP, which stated that ASAP finally decided to

agree with the postponement of the 7th ICAAP to 2005. The original proposition

of postponing the 7th ICAAP to 2005 was submitted by the Local Organizing

Committee (LOC) of ICAAP following the result of the vote of its members, and

after that the long negotiation between LOC and ASAP had been continued until

yesterday. This agreement means that the 7th ICAAP will surely be postponed to

summer or fall of 2005. Following the agreement, the LOC will decide its final

decision to postpone the 7th ICAAP in early July.

The reason of the postponement of the ICAAP is, according to the LOC, to avoid

SARS and SARS panic, the epidemic which was outbroken and spread wider in East

Asia this winter and spring. The LOC will soon release its public statement on

the postponement of the 7th ICAAP.

It is quite unfortunate for Asian/Pacific HIV/AIDS communities (PHAs, people in

vulnerable communities and people working in AIDS service organizations) that

one of the great opportunities to meet each other and discuss/formulate our

policy/strategy to fight HIV/AIDS in Asia/Pacific was lost in this year.

Especially, the postponement was quite a damage for us, Japanese HIV/AIDS

communities, because we lost their biggest opportunity after Yokohama

International AIDS Conference on 1994 to make wider relationship with

Asian/Pacific communities and integrate themselves into these communities.

As for " access to treatment " issues, we, Africa Japan Forum (AJF) and some

other Japanese NGOs were working to prepare a series of symposia and workshops

inside/outside the ICAAP to have the opportunities of discussing and formulating

Asia/Pacific strategies on this issue to the coming International AIDS

Conference in Bangkok, which is the opportunity to follow-up the UNGASS

Declaration on Committment. The postponement is quite a damage, but we will

continue our effort to organize some alternative opportunities (e.g. seminars or

round-tables) in November as a part of the regional follow-up process of the

ITPS Summit and the September Round-Table in Indonesia. And the LOC will also

plan some alternative events in November. Probably we will be able to show our

plan of these alternative opportunities by, at the latest, the end of July.

Sincerely Yours,

Masaki Inaba

Board Member, Africa Japan Forum

E-mail: pinktri@...