AIDS2012 civil society demands

An excerpt from remarks at the AIDS2012 closing session of Conference co-organiser, Ian Mc Knight of the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities (CVC) Coalition

Now onto this vexed issue of human rights. Human rights violations against people living with HIV (PLHIV) and against many of us from "vulnerablised" populations are still rampant allover the world and must stop now. Let us not fool ourselves... we are not going to achieve any of the three zeros without ensuring the human rights of all of us.

In Jamaica alone we have lost Albert, Trevor, Lloyd, Paul and many others. Lesbians are raped repeatedly. We have seen where sex workers are exploited by the police. PLHIV have been killed because of their HIV status. These kinds of atrocities, the gender based violence and all these forms of discrimination are unacceptable. Government and police forces must go full out and stop these senseless killings.

As we scale up treatment as prevention... we must stop stigma in the workplace, clinics, in places of worship and in communities. We must repeal the senseless, outdated, punitive laws that criminalise people with HIV, gay men, transgender people, people who use drugs and sex workers. We must remove laws that prevent sexually active youth from accessing condoms and other life saving commodities. These laws are wasteful, they violate human rights and they undermine public health.