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REGIONAL MEETING

ASIA/PACIFIC

1. That all conference co-sponsors, particularly UNAIDS and ICASO, ensure that every action plan in response to HIV/AIDS includes:

   • Inclusion of migration related issues (eg cross-border, mobile/migrant populations, trafficking of women and children);
     
   • Access to treatments as a fundamental non-negotiable priority including essential medications related to opportunistic infections;
     
   • Lobbying for increased funding from highly developed countries for international activities on HIV/AIDS;
     
   • Attention to strategies to reduce global price of treatments and increased support and research for the role of traditional medicines.

2. That IAS in conjunction with all conference co-sponsors, particularly UNAIDS and ICASO, ensure that at Durban 2000, sessions on issues for particularly marginalised communities eg, adolescents, sex workers, injection drug users, be designed and presented by representatives of those communities rather than organisations or researchers working with those communities.

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

1. LACCASO, GNP+, ICW and the AIDS Working Party of ILGA will co-organise the Community Forum of the next Pan-American AIDS Conference which will take place in 1999 in Brazil. This Community Forum will take place immediately prior to the Conference.

The four networks, as co-sponsor of the Pan-American Conference, request IAS and UNAIDS as organisers, to integrate membership of all the Committees of the Conference, and, as in Geneva, to have a Community Planning Committee Chair.

NORTH AMERICA

1. NACASO will develop a mailing list and distribute, to begin creation of a mail and electronic communication tree for the region, by the end August 1998.

   Key areas of future collaboration and networking will include, but not be limited in any fashion to:

   • Increased communication
     
   • Increased linkages
     
   • Information dissemination
     
   • Networking and skills building strategies

2. Key organisations and individuals within North America will seek to increase knowledge and understanding of the cultural context(s) in which we undertake our single and joint activities within Canada, United States and Mexico.

3. NACASO will host a further regional meeting by February 1999, planned to reach agreement on action items for the year 2000, following additional "dialogue".

NETWORK MEETING

COMMUNITY BASED RESEARCH

1. That IAS in conjunction with all conference co-sponsors ensure that at Durban 2000 symposia, round-table discussions and rapporteur summaries in conference plenaries be used to bridge the gap between discussions on community-based research, theory, methods, practice and ethics in the CRV and discussions on theory, methods, practice and ethics in the general conference proceedings (all tracks).
   
2. That IAS in conjunction with all conference co-organisers ensure that a forum on community-based research be reconvened at Durban 2000 to study progress on discussions since Geneva and Vancouver on issues of theory method, and ethics practice.
   
3. ICASO, Geneva 1998 Liaison Committee and Durban 2000 Liaison Committee to give ongoing support for the electronic discussion forum on community-based research with the purpose to identify, document, and disseminate community-based research, theory, method and practice.

GAY MEN AND OTHER MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN

1. It was agreed that current HIV/AIDS decision making networks do not reflect cultural, religious economic and sexual diversity. Effective networking must acknowledge and respond to this diversity by extending links and dedicating resources to develop new fora and networks both inside and outside the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. These must include other minority and religious identities, positive youth, and human rights organisations, at all levels.
   
2. Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues remain important for this and future conferences. Similarly, HIV/AIDS remains an issue important to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. These concerns should be more adequately reflected in the program at the next conference. There must also be a recognition of the differing needs of different regions of the world, especially those within the global South.

HUMAN RIGHTS

1. UNAIDS to work with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish and promote mechanisms for the documentation of HIV-related human rights abuses/omissions and best practices at the national and international levels including a Special Rapporteur on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights by Durban 2000.
   
2. UNAIDS to provide technical and financial support to strengthen communication and networking amongst existing and emerging networks on HIV and human rights, including:
   
   • national workshops;
     
   • email capability;
     
   • materials development;

   and that a report be submitted to Durban 2000.

3. UNAIDS to establish an international task force to monitor the application of the International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights through the development of specific national and international workplans and strategies.

The first report of the Task Force is to be presented at Durban 2000.

MIGRATION

1. We call on Governments to stop the inhumane and degrading practice of deporting people living with HIV and to respect their fundamental human rights.
2. Access to HIV/AIDS treatment and services should be based on need and not immigration status.
3. The Third World is also inside the rich North. We call on Third World people living in the North to demonstrate their solidarity both to people living with HIV in their communities and transform the call of ‘Bridging the Gap’ into the practice of solidarity with the South.

LIVING WITH HIV

1. ICW key contacts and GNP+ Board will work together to ensure, by January 1999, good collaboration at the grass-roots level between local groupings of ICW and GNP+.

COMMUNITY SYMPOSIA

FACING A FUTURE : LONG-TERM SURVIVAL WITH HIV

Directed to IAS and UNAIDS

1. We call on the IAS and UNAIDS to make a sustained commitment to bridge the gap in perspective between objective science and the subjective experiences of people with long term HIV.

In particular, we call on them to see to it that institutions and governments develop and sustain research programmes to increase understanding of HIV as a long term condition, of the psycho-social needs of people with long term HIV, and to the preservation of forms of social protection of people with long term HIV for as long as they are needed.

2. We call for action at the community level for the creation of options for living, for example in regard to return to work, tailored to individual circumstances and needs, and for respect and support for treatment decisions, whether they be to treat or not to treat.
   
3. Finally, due to the complexity and multiplicity of issues relating to HIV as a long term disease, we recommend that a conference be held devoted to the topic.

COMMERCIAL SEX AND HEALTH IN THE SECOND DECADE OF HIV

1. Donors must recognise the value of networking and make funds available to appropriate networks of sex work projects at global, regional and country level. Appropriate networks are those which recognise commercial sex as valid employment and sex workers’ right to self determine.
   
2. Those conducting research concerning sex work rarely use epidemiological methods of evaluation of such projects, and when used are insufficient. Researchers must develop a method of evaluation that is based on sex worker perceptions of project success.
   
3. This Community Symposium expresses great concern and condemns the actions of the Hungarian police in Csongrad County that have resulted in greater local STD/HIV risk. These actions include arrests and harassment such that sex workers are forced to sell unsafe sex to meet fines and avoid imprisonment. This requires working long hours so sex workers are prevented from accessing sexual health services. We appeal to all regulatory authorities to prohibit any act of policing that may impact negatively on HIV prevention amongst sex workers and to fund programs for police education.
   
4. Government must explore means to reduce the reliance of transgenders on sex work as their sole source of income and enact laws which provide a non discriminatory environment for transgender citizenship.
   
5. Those carrying out HIV and STD prevention work amongst sex workers must recognise that such work must be done concurrently for clients.