Urgent Sign on Letter: Aganist the Anti-Prostitution Pledge of PEPFAR

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

A strong group of advocates is working to strike the anti-prostitution

pledge from President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) (www.pepfar.gov

<http://www.perpfar.gov>).

We need your help from OUTSIDE the USA. The pledge requires organizations

receiving U.S. funding to sign a pledge " opposing prostitution. " This has

created problems for effective programs to combat AIDS. Please sign on to this

letter to US Congress recommending that the pledge be removed.

To sign on, write to pepfarletter@.... If you would like to add a

sentence about the ways the pledge has affected your work, please send that too!

The deadline to sign on is Tuesday, 5 February, at 5 pm GMT.

In solidarity,

Manohar

manoharban@...

To Congress Re: PEPFAR

A Letter from the Field by

January 31, 2008

Dear Member of the US Congress:

We are members of non-governmental and community-based organizations from

throughout the developing world. We are writing out of concern about the

so-called anti-prostitution pledge within the President's Emergency Plan for

AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the ways it affects our work. The pledge requires

organizations receiving U.S. funding to sign a pledge " opposing prostitution. "

This policy has undermined

the work of many of our organizations and we must protest it.

PEPFAR demonstrates the US's commitment to address one of the world's most

urgent health problems, the need to prevent, treat, and care for people infected

with or affected by HIV and AIDS. The United States

Congress has generously appropriated nearly $23 billion for this program, yet

the conditions attached to PEPFAR limit the success of this program and in fact

even prevent the people most in need from

accessing both the prevention services and anti-retroviral drugs the program was

established to provide. In addition, this and other restrictions have seriously

diminished the effectiveness of the plan by denying funding purely on

ideological grounds to organizations and programs seeking to prevent the

greatest number of new infections possible among some of the most vulnerable

populations, specifically sex workers.

Many of us have turned down US funding because of these restrictions, which if

adopted would prevent us from reaching some of the people most vulnerable to

HIV/AIDS. Those of us who in fact still receive USAID funding are forced to

restrict our activities and sometimes end our support for programs that have

proven successful in meeting the needs of the most vulnerable. The vagueness of

both the law and policy implementing the pledge fosters self-censorship and

stymies programs aimed at building skills within vulnerable populations and

saving the lives of those daily at risk of infection, violence,

discrimination and even death.

We cannot effectively do our work of HIV prevention with the pledge. This

restriction leads to violence against sex workers and other human rights

violations by further isolating sex workers from mainstream society.

Furthermore, this makes them prey to corrupt police and officials.

Our work gives us critical perspective on the gaps between U.S. funding through

PEPFAR and the reality on the ground. For example:

· Sex workers in Bangladesh include women who have no other

income-generating opportunities but whose programs have been cut due to the

anti-prostitution pledge. HIV/AIDS has reached epidemic proportions among sex

workers in some places. This pledge has been used as justification to deprive

sex workers and suspected sex workers of clinical and humanitarian services.

Sixteen drop-in centers for sex workers in Bangladesh were closed after their

parent organization signed the pledge. For most of these women, the drop-in

centers were the only places they had to bathe, to use the toilet, and to sleep.

· In Thailand, male sex workers were prevented from accessing care at

a clinic because offering services to sex workers was seen as violating the

anti-prostitution pledge.

· In Cambodia and Thailand, sex worker organizations have lost

long-term partnerships with other service providers who feared losing their

funding if they accepted sex workers at their facilities.

We strongly advocate striking the prostitution pledge from the President's

Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. This well-intentioned clause has had extremely

detrimental effects upon thousands of women, their families, and men throughout

the developing world. It has undermined the effectiveness of US aid efforts.

And it has

undermined our trust in US support for the basic human rights of all

persons, no matter their place in society.

Yours sincerely,

Manohar Elavarthi

Bangalore, India

e-mail: <manoharban@...>