Africa Gay

Symposium Africagay against AIDS: "Gay Leaders: who do you represent beyond yourself? ".

AIDS cannot be overcome if vulnerable groups are not fully taken into consideration.

 Sunday, July 22, 2012 - 3:45 to 5:45 PM in Mini Room 5.

During the African Conference on HIV / AIDS in Addis Adeba (ICASA - December 2011) the network Africagay contre le Sida organized a symposium on the relationship between discrimination, stigma and the resurgence of HIV infections / AIDS among Gays in Africa. This year, at the World AIDS Conference which will be held in Washington from July 22th to 27th 2012, the ’ members of Africagay contre le Sida go further and question the role of Gay leaders in the fight against this epidemic.

 Indeed the Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV and AIDS (GIPA Principle), declared at the Paris AIDS Summit in 1994 and formally adopted by UNAIDS in 1999, asserts that people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) should be fully involved and integrated in developing policies related to them and programs providing HIV research, care, prevention, and treatment. However, nearly 20 years later, this initiative which seeks to ensure that PLWHIV are equal partners of the official organizations involved in the fight against the epidemic, has shown its limits. PLHIV have been turned into an alibi. Today, in a global context where MSM bear the brunt of the fight against AIDS, how can we promote the emergence of Gay leaders aiming for social transformation rooted in political action and collective mobilization?

 To address this delicate issue, Africagay contre le Sida AIDS has called for internationally recognized players to voice their commitment on the subject. This panel will bring together four, high Level speakers from diverse backgrounds to discuss the challenge of true integration of Gays in the fight against AIDS. The purpose of this exchange is to identify the best ways to promote the emergence of Gay leaders, politically engaged within the structures of fight against AIDS to allow the necessary recognition of their rights and to effectively impact on the epidemic.

The panelists of this symposium will be:

•  Stephen Lewis, co-director of AIDS-Free World and former Special Envoy to the United Nations on AIDS in Africa.
• Jeanne Gapiya, President of the Association Nationale de Soutien aux Séropositifs et aux malades du Sida (ANSS), Burundi.
• Marjorie Hill, PhD, Chief Executive Officer, Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC).
• Ottoman Mellouk, MD, MSM Global Forum co-chair.
•  Moderator: Yves Yomb, Executive Director of Alternatives Cameroun (Cameroon).

The member associations of Africagay against AIDS will make the most of their presence at the World AIDS Conference in Washington to meet with participants and discuss the situation of MSM in Africa, including difficulties relating to accessing a quality care. This discussion will aim to make known the work done on the ground and the difficulties faced by associations to recognize the health rights of these populations, however strongly affected by HIV / AIDS.

 The member associations will also go back to the genesis of the network Africagay contre le Sida and the reasons why local players come together to try to find a common response to the silent spread of the epidemic among MSM. This network of 16 organizations from 9 countries (Algeria, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Togo, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Senegal and France) aims to develop a community response to the AIDS epidemic among gay men in Africa with emphasis on the sharing of experiences among associations from North Africa, Central and West.

 Moreover, Africagay contre le Sida is strongly committed to recognizing and respecting the rights of vulnerable populations, inseparable from an effective fight against the HIV / AIDS. Like many international organizations (Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, UNAIDS and WHO), the member organizations of the network Africagay contre le Sida work daily for the recognition of MSM rights as an essential vector to effective access to health. This time of sharing and meeting will be an opportunity to revisit this commitment and the limitations imposed by a too often repressive legal and legislative framework, which jeopardizes the efforts of prevention and awareness programs conducted by the associative actors on the field.

These presentations will be in French. Come!

On the occasion of the World AIDS Conference in Washington (July 22th to 27th 2012) the network Africagay contre le Sida launches its first report which aims to make known the work done on the ground by the member associations’ of this network as well as the role of the African civil society in the fight against the AIDS epidemic. It is forewarded by Francoise Barre Sinoussi, Nobel Prize in Medicine and co-discoverer of the AIDS virus.

The report looks at the actions of the associations’ member of the network Africagay contre le Sida in eight countries in North, Central and West Africa in which they operate (Algeria, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Togo, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon and Senegal). It details the tender care and support offered by the various associations and advocacy for the recognition of gay rights in Africa, whether locally, regionally or internationally.

 The pages of this report are interspersed with stories of arrests and acts of stigma of those involved in the fight against AIDS and of MSM, who attest the difficulty of accessing care for vulnerable populations in a too often repressive legislative and legal framework. It also ends with a series of in depth articles dealing with the issue of medical care and recognition of Gay rights in Africa. These contributions of lawyers, association’s president, members of international organizations and activists in the field illustrate once more the data of the first part of this report.

 This report has only been made possible by the unwavering commitment of activists’ volunteers and field workers of Africagay against AIDS. It is a collective production which aims to draw attention to the difficulties of gay men in Africa in accessing to health.