August 17, 2011
To: Mr. Elly Katabira, President, International AIDS Society
Ms. Anouk Rey, Conference Director, International AIDS Society
Mr. Zahid Hussein, President, AIDS Society of Asia�Pacific
Mr. Myung�Hwan Cho, Congress Chair, ICAAP LOC Secretariat
Minister Soo Hee Chin, Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare
CC: Mr. Steve Kraus, Director, Regional Support Team, UNAIDS Bangkok
Mr. Michel Sidibé, Executive Director, UNAIDS
Mr. Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director, The Global Fund
Mr. Peter Baxter, Director General, AusAID
Dr. Margaret Chan, Director�General, World Health Organization
Mr. Haruhiko Kuroda, President, Asian Development Bank
Mr. Robert B. Zoellick, President, World Bank
Ambassador Eric Goosby, Global AIDS Coordinator, PEPFAR
Mr. Christian Kroll, Global Coordinator for HIV/AIDS, UNODC
Mr. Gary Lewis, Regional Representative, UNODC RCEAP, Thailand.
Dear Colleagues,
We are writing to express our grave concern about the discriminatory
barriers faced by people
who use drugs (PUD) in participating at the 10th International
Congress on AIDS in Asia and the
Pacific (ICAAP) being held in Busan, Republic of Korea 26�30 August 2011.
According to an official statement issued by the Local Organizing
Committee (LOC) of ICAAP,
“Notice for PUDs”, globally accepted opioid substitution treatment
medications such as
methadone and buprenorphine will not be available at ICAAP, though
“carry�in of methadone
for self�treatment purpose is allowed under the permission of Korea
Food and Drug
Administration.”
This is not a solution. Asia Catalyst has provided a scholarship to a
former drug user from China
who has been invited to present at ICAAP, her first time traveling to
an international conference.
Under Chinese law, methadone is only legal in China when consumed at a
methadone clinic.
Once removed from the clinic, methadone becomes an illegal narcotic
and may not be carried
out of the clinic premises – and certainly not out of the country.
The failure of the Korean government to make arrangements for
provision of methadone to
conference participants in effect denies Chinese drug users the
opportunity of participating in
the ICAAP, because they cannot legally bring in methadone from China.
There are conference
participants from other countries in Asia, such as Malaysia or
Myanmar, who may face similar
obstacles. For any such delegate, the failure to provide methadone at
ICAAP creates
discriminatory barriers to conference attendance.
Even for those countries where it is possible to obtain methadone
legally, bringing along a
personal supply of methadone creates an increased health risk to the
PUD attending ICAAP.
Without the safety net of an additional supply at the conference,
should a dose be lost or in any
way compromised, PUD will face serious health risks. Additionally,
since Korea currently does
not have a national methadone program, we are concerned that local
doctors might not be
equipped to respond to these or any other medical emergencies that may
arise for PUD at the
conference.
This situation raises larger questions about the purpose of these
international conferences that
we feel donors should seriously consider. AIDS conferences, and the
high registration fees they
charge, raise many thousands of dollars in income for host countries
and conference conveners
from the international community – AIDS funding that could also be
spent on providing life
saving medicines to people who desperately need them. We are sure
there will be many senior
officials at ICAAP who will travel to Busan at the expense of
international donors in order to
speak about the importance of reaching out to and consulting with KAPs
and PLHIV. But are we
successfully creating a conference environment that ensures the
safety, well being, and access
to necessary health and medical services for KAPS, including people
who use drugs?
We call on the International AIDS Society and the ICAAP organizers:
• To issue an official statement expressing a clear commitment to the
public and to all
members of the International AIDS Society that in the future, any
country applying to
host an International AIDS Conference (such as ICAAP) that does not
present a clear plan
to enable people who use drugs, sex workers and MSM to overcome any existing
logistical and legal barriers to conference participation as part of
its bid, will not be
considered or selected as a host of the conference.
• State explicitly in the bidding guidelines that Access to Health
Care is a major criteria for
consideration, and this must necessarily include the provision of
Opiate Substitution
Therapy (OST) by the host country.
We call on the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the
government of the Republic of
Korea:
• To provide staff assistance and support to Asian drug user
participants to ensure that
anyone invited to present at the conference who needs methadone and other OST
medication will have access to them;
• To provide experienced and trained doctors at the conference who can
assist PLHIV and
drug user participants in case of emergency; and
• To make methadone generally available to opioid dependent citizens
of the Republic of
Korea.
One year ago, AIDS advocates, government officials and UN
representatives all marched
together with the IAS at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna
to demand human rights
be part of the global response to the AIDS pandemic.
We now call on the IAS, the ICAAP organizers and the Korean government
to uphold that
commitment, and eliminate all discriminatory barriers that prevent our
colleagues from making
their voices heard at ICAAP.
Sincerely,
Asia Catalyst
Asian Network of People Who Use Drugs
Asia Pacific Network of People living with HIV/AIDS (APN+)
Coalition of Asia Pacific Regional Networks on HIV/AIDS (7S)
Indonesian Network of People who Use Drug
The International Center for Advancement of Addiction Treatment
The Global Drug Policy Program of the Open Society Foundations
The International Harm Reduction Development program of the Open
Society Foundations
Performa, Central Java, Indonesia
Mr. Abou Mere, President, Indian Drug Users Forum
Mr. Anand Chabungbam, ANPUD
Becklyn Ulzen�Christian, Pathfinders Outreach Ministry, Accra, Ghana
Mr. Bijay Pandey, Nepal Harm Reduction Association
Dr. Chris Ford GP, Clinical Director, International Doctors for
Healthy Drug Policies (IDHDP), UK
Dan Bigg, Director, Chicago Recovery Alliance, USA
Mr. Dipu Joshi, Naya Goreto
Ele Morrison, International Program Manager, Australian Injecting &
Illicit Drug Users League
(AIVL), Australia
Francis Joseph, DFID AIDS Technical Assistance Support Team for NACO, India
Giten Khwairakpam, 7 Sisters
Gregg Gonsalves, USA
Haobam Nanao, Manipur State, India
James Hoyt, Hepatitis, AIDS, Research Trust
Jan Klimas, Dublin, Ireland
Joy Ganguly, ANPUD
Mohammad Harun Al Rashid, CARAM Asia
Nikhil Gurung, Nepal
Mr. Ranvir Singh, Prana
Mr. Sam Nugraha, National Coordinator, Persaudaraan Korban Napza
Indonesia (PKNI)
Shaun Mellors, Board Member, Communities Living with HIV, TB and
affected by Malaria
Delegation – Global Fund Board
Mr. Sujan Raj Joshi, Youth Vision
Tendayi Westerhof, Public Personalities Against AIDS Trust, Harare, Zimbabwe
Yvonne A. Sibuea, general coordinator, PERFORMA
Zulaika Esentaeva, Public Health Program Coordinator, Soros Foundation
– Kyrgyzstan
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