HIV-related travel restriction - civil society letter

[Guest guest]

Dear advocates from around the world

We invite you, in advance of the UN high-level Meeting on AIDS in New

York from June 10 – 11, to sign on to a letter to the UN missions

and Heads of State of countries that impose travel restrictions on

people living with HIV.

As members of civil society we condemn such restrictions as

discriminatory and in contradiction to the commitments made through the 2001

Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the 2006 Political

Declaration. We urge governments that continue to impose travel

restriction on people living with HIV to lift these, whether short or

long-term.

We will be collecting signatures online until June 5 and then we will

collect signatures during the civil-society pre-meeting

[www.icaso.org/HLM.html] taking place the day before (June 9) of the

high-level meeting in New York.

To sign on to the letter, please send the name of your organization and your

country to: universalaccess2010@...

_____________________

Civil Society Letter on HIV-related Travel Restrictions

Addressed to the UN Missions and Heads of State in Countries with

Restrictions

Dear Excellency,

As we approach the 2008 UN high-level meeting on AIDS, all governments

and the global community are called to review the progress and

performance in achieving universal access to treatment, care, support

and prevention by 2010.

As leaders within civil society, we are writing to ask for your urgent

attention and leadership in removing your country's travel

restrictions (short or long-term) that restrict access to people, based solely

on their HIV status. These restrictions are discriminatory and are contrary to

the commitments made through the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and

the 2006 Political Declaration.

We are asking you to consider announcing in New York, plans to lift your

country's restrictions. This is the right thing to do. It does not create

financial or other burdens. And as civil society, we are ready to stand with

you in making and implementing such a commitment. This would be a noteworthy

step and a sign of real leadership at the high-level meeting on June 10 -11 in

New York.

Overview

HIV-related travel restrictions are not something new. They have

existed since the beginning of the epidemic, but are increasingly

obsolete and discriminatory in a world with more access to treatment and

ever-increasing mobility.

Today, there are more than 70 countries that still impose some form of

HIV-specific restrictions on the entry and residence of positive people.

Of these, some 10 countries bar HIV positive people from entering or

staying in their country for any reason or length of time. There are

close to 30 countries that deport people once their HIV infection is

discovered. More than 70 countries do not have HIV specific travel

restrictions. For the remaining 49 countries, the information is either

contradictory or unavailable.[1]

The most visible impact is when HIV positive people—against the

principle of the greater involvement of people living with HIV—are

denied entry into countries where major conferences or meetings on HIV

are being held. This robs people living with HIV from opportunities to

contribute their experience and expertise, while also diminishing the

credibility and accomplishment of the conference or meeting. This

situation is very problematic at UN high-level meetings on AIDS held in the

United States, which has a complete ban on the entry of people

living with HIV (HIV positive delegates, civil society representatives, UN

staff, religious leaders, media, trade union members, and business people). In

order to enter the United States legally to attend such meetings, people living

with HIV must disclose their status in a discriminatory and humiliating waiver

process. The often lengthy and intrusive process to receive a visa waiver is

all the more stigmatizing and discriminatory, when a mark is placed in a

person's passport, indicating the waiver and its purpose.

However, in terms of largest impact and numbers of people affected,

HIV-related travel restrictions are felt most by labour migrants.

Prospective migrants are either barred from entering a country when

determined to be HIV positive through a mandatory pre-departure HIV

test, or are deported when required to take a periodic HIV test during

their residence abroad, and test positively. Rarely is this type of

HIV-testing confidential or linked to any other services, either in a

person's country of origin or destination. This exposes to and

places people who are already highly vulnerable in situations of great

discrimination and economic devastation. Similarly, people living with HIV, who

want to cross borders for the purposes of family reunification, suffer from the

same restrictions.

Fulfilling existing commitments The 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS

saw governments agree to " enact, strengthen or enforce as appropriate

legislation, regulations and other measures to eliminate all forms of

discrimination against, and to ensure the full enjoyment of all human rights and

fundamental freedoms by people living with HIV/AIDS " (para.58). The 2006

Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS saw governments commit to intensifying efforts

towards these ends (para.29). These commitments are not being kept.

The realities are:

* HIV-related travel restrictions have no valid public health

rationale and may in fact undermine HIV prevention and other efforts to stop the

epidemic. This has been definitively stated by the World

Health Organization and the World Health Assembly on several occasions. [2]

* HIV-specific travel restrictions are discriminatory and contribute to the

stigmatization of people living with HIV.

* HIV-related travel restrictions are anachronisms, and highly inappropriate in

the age of globalization, increased travel,

treatment for HIV, and national and international commitments to

universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

* There is no demonstrated proof that the spectre of a huge negative

economic impact on countries without travel restrictions is valid. In

fact, the evidence points to the opposite in a country like Brazil,

where there is universal access to treatment and there are no travel

restrictions. There has been no flood of HIV positive travellers (short or

long-term) streaming across the borders to claim treatment, placing a burden on

Brazilian society.

* Long-term travel restrictions that single out HIV, as opposed to comparable

conditions, are also discriminatory. Any restriction based on fear of costs must

be based on an individual determination that such costs will actually be

incurred.

Any human rights or humanitarian concerns, such as need for asylum,

should always trump economic considerations.

* The commitment of organizations and governments to the GIPA principle (Greater

Involvement of People Living with HIV or AIDS) is regularly undermined by

HIV-related travel restrictions, when HIV positive speakers, resource people and

leaders, cannot enter countries to take part in meetings, programs or planning.

UNAIDS and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria are

working together against such restrictions and have created an

International Task Team on HIV-related Travel Restrictions, which

comprises representatives of governments, UN agencies and civil

society, including people living with HIV. They will be issuing their

report and recommendations later this year, as well as providing tools

to support governments in taking the steps to remove their restrictions.

The Global Fund decided that it would not hold Board Meetings in

countries that restrict short-term entry of people living with HIV or

require prospective HIV-positive visitors to declare their HIV status on entry.

What you can do

1. We ask you to rescind HIV-specific travel restrictions; and

instead, take steps to ensure access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and

support for mobile populations, both nationals and non-nationals.

2. We are asking you to use the upcoming 2008 UN high-level

meeting on AIDS as a moment to announce the elimination of these

restrictions by your government.

3. We are asking you to take up the issue of travel restrictions

with other governments where they are applied to your citizens seeking

to travel or migrate.

4. We are asking you to meet with people living with HIV, who

will be in New York at the high-level meeting to hear first-hand their

experience of discrimination and stigmatization caused by travel

restrictions.

5. We implore you to not hold international conferences that are

relevant to the response to HIV and AIDS in countries with HIV-related

travel restrictions. Future UN high-level meetings or Reviews on AIDS

should not be held in countries with such restrictions.

Yours respectfully,

[add name of all organizations]