Call on governments to lift HIV travel restrictions
Introduction
In advance of the United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS in New York from June 10- 11, the World AIDS Campaign and the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance urge organizations to sign onto a letter from civil society to the UN missions and Heads of State of countries that impose travel restrictions on people living with HIV.
We join with other members of civil society in condemning such restrictions as discriminatory and in contradiction to the commitments made through the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the 2006 Political Declaration. We urge governments that continue to impose travel restriction on people living with HIV to lift these, whether short or long-term.
Signatures will be collected via email until June 5. To sign on, email the name of your organization and country to universalaccess2010@icaso.org. Signatures will also be collected during the civil-society pre-meeting taking place the day before (June 9) of the High Level Meeting in New York.
Background
When the HIV and AIDS epidemic was identified in the early 1980s and little was
understood about the disease, many countries established travel restrictions in an effort to prevent the virus from entering their borders. Such measures included mandatory HIV testing for persons seeking entry to the country and negative HIV status declarations by would-be entrants. Based on these mandatory tests and declarations, a number of countries have excluded from entry people living with HIV or people suspected of being infected.
Despite the medical advances that have made HIV a manageable disease, and a general consensus from the public health community that travel restrictions are inappropriate and discriminatory in nature, over 70 countries still impose some form of restrictions, citing two main reasons - to protect the national public health and to avoid the economic costs of providing health care and social assistance to people affected by HIV and AIDS.
These travel restrictions can take on different forms, including restrictions on people wishing to enter or remain in a country for a short stay such as business, personal visits or tourism; or for longer periods, such as labour migration, employment, asylum or refugee resettlement, or study. Of the countries with restrictions in place, some 10 countries bar people living with HIV from entering or staying in their country for any reason or length of time.[1] Countries
requiring special attention include: Burnei, China, Iraq, Qatar, South Korea, Libya,
Oman, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sudan, Yemen, United Arab Emirates and the United
States.
The 2001 Declaration of Commitments on HIV/AIDS saw governments agreeing to "enact, strengthen or enforce as appropriate legislation, regulations and other measures to
eliminate all forms of discrimination against, and to ensure the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by people living with HIV/AIDS", and in the 2006 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS governments committed to intensifying efforts to eliminate all forms of discrimination directed towards people living with HIV and AIDS. Also, the report of the consultation on international travel and HIV infection of the WHO, April 1987 states "HIV-related travel restrict ions have no valid public health rationale and may in fact undermine HIV prevention and other efforts to stop the epidemic".
Unfortunately, these commitments are not being kept.
What can YOU Do?
As part of a wide coalition of civil society organizations, we encourage you to sign on to letter below and take other steps as an individual or as an organization to join the call to countries to lift any form of HIV- related travel restrictions policies and/or laws.
Sign on to the letter below by sending your organization's name and
country to universalaccess2010@icaso.org no later than June 5.
Find out the status of any travel restrictions imposed by your country.
The list of countries with HIV-related travel restrictions is always changing. Check
up-do-date information before you advocate with a specific government. (For more
detailed information country-by country, visit http://www.eatg.org/hivtravel
www.eatg.org/hivtravel or www.aidshilfe.de)
Use the upcoming 2008 UN High Level Meeting on AIDS as a moment to press for new commitments (and action) by your own government and others to remove travel restrictions. This could be a very positive example of progress.
Use the 2008 UN High Level Meeting on AIDS to begin to strategize about national level action to oppose HIV-related travel restrictions.
Inform the media about the issue and the discriminatory practices of many countries.
Do not hold international conferences in countries with HIV-related travel restrictions. Future UN High Level Meetings or Reviews on AIDS should not be held in countries with such restrictions.
Raise awareness among your networks and constituency about the travel restrictions.
Many people are not even aware that such restrictions exist.
Advocate with others: Create a letter writing campaign to officials in your government. You can advocate at all levels of government: from your local representatives all the way up the President or Prime Minister. Work together with other religious communities, civil society organizations and networks of people living with HIV. Make sure you let the media know about your plans.
Lobby your government officials to speak out against HIV-related travel restrictions at 2008 UN High Level Meeting on AIDS.
Text of the Letter:
Civil Society Letter on HIV-related Travel Restrictions Addressed to the UN Missions and Heads of State in Countries with Restrictions
Dear Excellency,
As we approach the 2008 UN high-level meeting on AIDS, all governments and the global
community are called to review the progress and performance in achieving universal access to treatment, care, support and prevention by 2010.
As leaders within civil society, we are writing to ask for your urgent attention and leadership in removing your country's travel restrictions (short or long-term) that restrict access to people, based solely on their HIV status. These restrictions are discriminatory and are contrary to the commitments made through the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the 2006 Political Declaration.
We are asking you to consider announcing in New York, plans to lift your country's restrictions. This is the right thing to do. It does not create financial or other burdens. And as civil society, we are ready to stand with you in making and implementing such a commitment. This would be a noteworthy step and a sign of real leadership at the high-level meeting on June 10 -11 in New York.
Overview
HIV-related travel restrictions are not something new. They have existed since the beginning of the epidemic, but are increasingly obsolete and discriminatory in a world with more access to treatment and ever-increasing mobility.
Today, there are more than 70 countries that still impose some form of HIV- specific restrictions on the entry and residence of positive people. Of these, some 10 countries bar HIV positive people from entering or staying in their country for any reason or length of time. There are close to 30 countries that deport people once their HIV infection is discovered. More than 70 countries do not have HIV specific travel restrictions. For the remaining 49 countries, the information is either contradictory or unavailable.[2]
The most visible impact is when HIV positive people-against the principle of the greater involvement of people living with HIV-are denied entry into countries where major conferences or meetings on HIV are being held. This robs people living with HIV from opportunities to contribute their experience and expertise, while also diminishing the credibility and accomplishment of the conference or meeting. This situation is very problematic at UN high-level meetings on AIDS held in the United States, which has a complete ban on the entry of people living with HIV (HIV positive delegates, civil society representatives, UN staff, religious leaders, media, trade union members, and business people). In order to enter the United States
legally to attend such meetings, people living with HIV must disclose their status in a discriminatory and humiliating waiver process. The often lengthy and intrusive process to receive a visa waiver is all the more stigmatizing and discriminatory, when a mark is placed in a person's passport, indicating the waiver and its purpose.
However, in terms of largest impact and numbers of people affected, HIV- related travel restrictions are felt most by labour migrants. Prospective migrants are either barred from entering a country when determined to be HIV positive through a mandatory pre-departure HIV test, or are deported when required to take a periodic HIV test during their residence abroad, and test positively. Rarely is this type of HIV-testing confidential or linked to any other services, either in a person's country of origin or destination. This exposes to and places people who are already highly vulnerable in situations of great discrimination and economic
devastation. Similarly, people living with HIV, who want to cross borders for the
purposes of family reunification, suffer from the same restrictions.
Fulfilling existing commitments
The 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS saw governments agree to "enact, strengthen or enforce as appropriate legislation, regulations and other measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination against, and to ensure the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by people living with HIV/AIDS" (para.58).
The 2006 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS saw governments commit to intensifying efforts towards these ends (para.29). These commitments are not being kept.
The realities are: HIV-related travel restrictions have no valid public health rationale and may in fact undermine HIV prevention and other efforts to stop the epidemic. This has been definitively stated by the World Health Organization and the World Health Assembly on several occasions. [3] HIV-specific travel restrictions are discriminatory and contribute to the stigmatization of people living with HIV. HIV-related travel restrictions are anachronisms, and highly inappropriate in the age of globalization, increased travel, treatment for HIV, and national and
international commitments to universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and
support. There is no demonstrated proof that the spectre of a huge negative economic impact on countries without travel restrictions is valid. In fact, the evidence points to the opposite in a country like Brazil, where there is universal access to treatment and there are no travel restrictions. There has been no flood of HIV positive travellers (short or long-term) streaming across the borders to claim treatment, placing a burden on Brazilian society. Long-term travel restrictions that single out HIV, as opposed to comparable conditions, are also discriminatory. Any restriction based on fear of costs must be based on an individual determination that such costs will actually be incurred. Any human rights or humanitarian concerns, such as need for asylum, should always trump economic considerations. The commitment of organizations
and governments to the GIPA principle (Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV or AIDS) is regularly undermined by HIV-related travel restrictions, when HIV positive speakers, resource people and leaders, cannot enter countries to take part in meetings, programs or planning.
UNAIDS and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria are working together against such restrictions and have created an International Task Team on HIV-related Travel Restrictions, which comprises representatives of governments, UN agencies and civil society, including people living with HIV. They will be issuing their report and recommendations later this year, as well as providing tools to support governments in taking the steps to remove their restrictions. The Global Fund decided that it would not hold Board Meetings in countries that restrict short-term entry of people living with HIV or require prospective HIV-positive visitors to
declare their HIV status on entry.
What you can do We ask you to rescind HIV-specific travel restrictions and instead, take steps to ensure access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support for mobile populations, both nationals and non-nationals. We are asking you to use the upcoming 2008 UN high-level meeting on AIDS as a moment to announce the elimination of these restrictions by your government. We are asking you to take up the issue of travel restrictions with other governments where they are applied to your citizens seeking to travel or migrate. We are asking you to meet with people living with HIV, who will be in New York at the high-level meeting to hear first-hand their experience of discrimination and stigmatization caused by travel restrictions. We implore you to not hold international conferences that are relevant to the response to HIV and AIDS in countries with HIV-related travel restrictions. Future UN high-level meetings or Reviews on AIDS should not be held in countries with such restrictions.
Yours respectfully,
[list of organizations]
This letter can also be downloaded at:
http://www.e-alliance.ch/media
For more information, please visit:
EATG website: http://www.eatg.org/hivtravel www.eatg.org/hivtravel
Deutsche AIDS Hilfe website: www.aidshilfe.de
Keep the Promise Campaign Bulletin of the EAA: The EAA website:
http://www.e-alliance.ch/media
Ua2010.org:
http://www.ua2010.org/en
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For past Action Alerts and Bulletins from the HIV and AIDS Campaign,
see http://www.e-alliance.ch
The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance is a broad international network of
churches and
Christian organizations cooperating in advocacy on global trade and HIV
and AIDS. The
Alliance is based in Geneva, Switzerland. For more information, see
http://www.e-alliance.ch/
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[1] This information is taken from the web site of the European AIDS
Treatment Group,
and based on a survey which was originally done by the German AIDS
Federation in 1999
and has been continually updated. The information has not been independently
verified. See http://www.eatg.org/hivtravel/
[2] This information is taken from the web site of the European AIDS
Treatment Group,
and based on a survey which was originally done by the German AIDS
Federation in 1999
and has been continually updated. The information has not been independently
verified. See http://www.eatg.org/hivtravel/
[3] Report of the consultation on international travel and HIV infection.
Geneva,
World Health Organization, April 1987; WHO/SPA/GLO/787.1.
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq
screening of
international travellers for infection with Human Immunodeficiency Virus,
WHO,
WHO/GPA/INF/88.3 (1988).; WHA Resolution 41.24 Avoidance of discrimination
in relation
to HIV-infected people and people with AIDS (1988)
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