Inter-Parliamentary Union - British Group - First Global Meeting on HIV/AIDS in Manila, Philippines


	Print this page

Delegation Reports

First Global Meeting on HIV/AIDS in Manila, Philippines
28 to 30 November 2007

First Global Parliamentary Meeting on HIV/AIDS, Manila, Philippines
28-30 November 2007

Report by David Borrow MP

Delegation
David Borrow MP

This meeting, which brought together Ministers and Parliamentarians from 56 countries, was the result of a resolution on HIV AIDS agreed at the 112th IPU Assembly in March 2005.
The Parliament of Philippines agreed to host and organise the meeting – they did so in a generous and well organised way.
Following the 2005 Assembly, an IPU Advisory Group was set up which included Neil Gerrard MP (Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Aids Group). The group seeks to help parliamentarians perform their oversight, legislative, representative and advisory roles within the sphere of HIV/AIDS and proposed a handbook for Parliament Taking Action Against AIDS.
The three-day meeting focused on a variety of issues including the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, the price of medicines, criminalisation of transmission, and fighting stigma and discrimination.
The meeting also discussed the need to reduce the vulnerability of the populations most at risk and ways to ensure national governments look after the children of those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
The importance of the handbook is that it reinforces the leadership role of Parliament in this issue.
In many communities, discussing issues round HIV/AIDS is difficult, but parliamentarians have a special role in challenging stigma and discrimination. Parliamentarians need to be prepared to use opportunities to discuss the epidemic to challenge the curtain of silence that is so common.
The meeting debated the affordability and accessibility of treatment for people who have HIV/AIDS. In particular, the working of the WTO Agreement on Trade related acceptance of Intellectual Property Rights (The Trips Agreement) was examined.
The flexibilities in the Trips Agreement are often not fully used and there are instances of bilateral trade agreements that are more restrictive than required under the Trips agreement.
Concern was expressed that increasingly second tier anti-retroviral medicines used in public programmes are being patented, reversing the downward trend in drug provision caused by the use of generic medicines.
There was a lively debate on the criminalisation of transmission. Concern was expressed that passing HIV specific legislation further stigmatises people living with HIV, providing a disincentive to HIV testing and creating a false sense of security among people who are HIV negative. There is no evidence that creating laws specific to HIV transmission have a significant effect on the spread of the HIV epidemic.
One of the most difficult debates was over ways of reducing vulnerability among populations at risk. While there was little difference of opinion concerning women, children and youths, many delegates had difficulty with proposals in respect of men who have sex with men, drug users and sex workers.
Providing services, whether preventative or treatment to these groups poses challenges for many parliamentarians. Nevertheless the meeting agreed a challenging resolution at the end of the debate.
The meeting examined the growth of funds available for tackling the spread of the epidemic and noted that the budget in low and middle income countries had gone from $2.1 billion US in 2001 to $10 billion in 2007. This is, however, well below the $30-$40 billion needed to fund a comprehensive programme.
A proposal was agreed to urge the international community to contribute 1 per cent of the combined debt of developing countries into a fund for use in the 20 most affected nations. Finally, it was agreed that a second global meeting of Parliamentarians should be called by the IPU to review progress and to chart a future path of action.