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Yirenping Center Reports on Disability Activism

2012-02-02T16:39:29Z

Beijing grassroots group, Yirenping Center (益仁平中心), has had a busy January organizing anti-discrimination activities with local disability activists! They produced a short report with data about their activities, including links to Chinese media sources. Yirenping Center, established in 2006, is a public interest group that focuses on health and discrimination. Download their report here (PDF).

The views represented by Yirenping Center are not necessarily those of Asia Catalyst.

QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER | October-December 2011

2012-02-01T14:26:38Z

CELEBRATING OUR FIFTH ANNIVERSARY

In 2012, Asia Catalyst is celebrating five years of partnering with grassroots groups in East and Southeast Asia. In a challenging environment, this new generation of leaders is developing innovative ways to meet the needs of marginalized communities. Most of our partners are small start-up groups in Asia and as part of our 5th Anniversary Campaign, we are asking for donations to help Chinese health rights advocates to make their voices heard at the International AIDS Conference in Washington D.C. this July. Please make a tax-deductible contribution here.

]]> Stay tuned for more details on our upcoming fifth anniversary events, and visit our homepage to learn more.

OUR WORK WITH GRASSROOTS CHINESE GROUPS

NGO Leadership Cohort Kick-off: In December, the China Program team traveled to Kunming, Yunnan to host the first of four training workshops for the 2012 NGO Leadership Cohort. Out of thirty applicants, we selected ten health-rights, grassroots NGOs from across China to join the first cohort. They will participate in four workshops on nonprofit management skills, with coaching support and peer support in between each workshop. The December workshop introduced meeting facilitation skills and strategic planning. Participants are currently doing their "homework"--they are practicing these techniques and developing strategic plans within their own organizations. We are especially excited about this project because it will train Chinese NGOs to train other groups in the future, so it offers great potential to scale up our capacity-building work.

Coaching: In December, Asia Catalyst invited applications from three Chinese NGOs that successfully participated in the 2011 coaching cycle for a second round of management coaching in 2012. Two organizations submitted applications: a new organization of drug users in Guangxi Province and an organization that provides services to male sex workers in Beijing. The China team is discussing what kinds of help we can provide to these two groups.

International AIDS Conference 2012: We are preparing for the International AIDS Conference! It will take place in Washington, D.C., in July 2012. Asia Catalyst issued a call for abstracts from our partners in China. We'll work with applicants to translate and revise their abstracts in advance of the conference, and will help with conference scholarship applications. We are planning workshops, roundtable discussions, and other activities for the AIDS conference. Look us up if you're planning to be there!

Chinese NGO Research Project: Following up on a training held by consultant Ariel Herrera in September using methods from AC's manual, Prove It: Documenting Rights Abuses, Asia Catalyst continued providing one-on-one coaching to a Yunnan NGO run by former drug users as they conducted research on employer discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS and drug users. Throughout the fall, staff and volunteers of the group interviewed members of their community. The interviews showed that many small companies, such as supermarkets, auto repair shops and tobacco stores, are firing people on the basis of their HIV status and their status as former drug users. Asia Catalyst worked with the group to analyze and sort the data, as well as to write the report and recommendations. The group will share the final report with local government officials and discuss ways of addressing the issue with them.

ON THE ADVOCACY FRONT

Compensation to Victims of China's Blood Disaster: In December, Asia Catalyst and its partners submitted a report to the Red Ribbon Forum on compensation for victims of China's HIV/AIDS blood disaster. Working with Dongjen Center for Human Rights Education and Action, UNAIDS, and Professor Qiu Renzong, we completed a report on efforts by victims of China's blood disaster to obtain compensation. The report drew on thirty-seven interviews with victims and dossiers compiled on ninety-seven additional cases, including powerful testimonies. Prof. Qiu has convened a working group on the issue, and the group will submit a proposal to the National People's Congress.

Op-ed on HIV/AIDS Discrimination: In December, Asia Catalyst's director, Sara L.M. Davis, published a joint op-ed with South African AIDS activist Mark Heywood on discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS in China. The op-ed drew on our work with Chinese groups on this issue.

We were also pleased to showcase an essay by Chinese lawyer Yu Fangqiang on our blog about his efforts to file the first lawsuits on HIV/AIDS-related discrimination in China.

PUBLICATIONS

On December 1, 2011, World AIDS Day, Asia Catalyst, Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group, and Dongjen jointly published the first volume in our human rights curriculum, Know It, Prove It, Change It: A Rights Curriculum for Grassroots Groups. This volume, Know It: The Rights Framework looks at real-life cases and analyzes them in the context of international standards. The manual and lesson plans are written in simple, accessible language and can be used by grassroots groups to train their communities in human rights principles. The Chinese and Thai editions will be published in March 2012. We are very grateful to Andrew Fields, who provided a pro bono legal review of Know It.

In 2013, we will also create the third volume of the series, on human rights advocacy.

5TH ANNIVERSARY CAMPAIGN

Many thanks to board member Ann Hotung, who hosted a wonderful dinner party to inaugurate our 5th Anniversary Campaign.

In January, we also launched the Catalyzers--a group of early/mid-career New York professionals with an interest in rule of law and social justice issues in China and Southeast Asia. They are planning a series of networking, social and educational events to bring together people with similar interests, and to connect with visiting lawyers and civil society leaders from the region. Get in touch if you're interested in becoming part of this smart and energetic group.

Save the date! Our 5th Anniversary Campaign launch and celebration is coming up on March 21: a chance for us to mark how far we've come in the past five years, celebrate all our partners have accomplished, and to prepare for the future.

IN THE OFFICE...

We have gone through rapid growth in the past quarter, moving to a new office in Manhattan and adding several new staff! A big welcome to our recent additions: Brian Bonci, administrative coordinator; Shalena Krumm, outreach coordinator; and Lizzy Berryman, a volunteer with our communications team.

A big thank you to John Emerson, long time supporter of Asia Catalyst and former board member, for his help in setting up our new online presence.

We also said farewell to Ariel Herrera, consultant, who was instrumental in developing the Rights Training Program, as well as Bella Mordeno, administrative assistant. We wish them both the best of luck in their future careers.

We are currently accepting applications for summer internships in New York from graduate and undergraduate students with Chinese or Burmese language competence and great organizational skills. To apply, please email us with a resume, cover letter, and the names of three references at info@asiacatalyst.org.

SUPPORT ASIA CATALYST: Please join us in supporting a new generation of leaders through a tax-deductible donation online.

UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights Statement on Crisis of HIV Funding

2012-01-31T19:36:57Z

Geneva, 30 January 2012 - The November 2011 announcement of the cancellation of the 11th round of funding of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria because of the Fund's financial difficulties presents the international community with both a health and a human rights crisis. Since its first round of funding in 2002, the Global Fund has played an indispensable role in advancing the health and human rights goals of the global HIV response.

The Global Fund's financial difficulties are part of a broader global HIV funding crisis. This funding crisis is the most important human rights issue in the HIV response at this time. Paradoxically, funding is being flat-lined or reduced just as science, medicine and programmes are providing the tools for success against HIV.

]]> In the view of the UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights, the reduction of, or failure to honour, pledged support to the Global Fund by donor governments must be understood for what it is - an abrogation of legally grounded human rights obligations. The Reference Group also believes that, while the Global Fund and other multi and bi-lateral efforts are necessary to ensure that sufficient resources are available to fulfill the right to health, governments of many low- and middle-income countries are not meeting human rights obligations to their people by failing to budget adequately for health. The Global Fund and other forms of international assistance are indispensible, but are not an excuse for developing countries to underfund health generally and HIV specifically.

In this context, the Reference Group makes a number of recommendations, including:

States should reaffirm their shared responsibility to realize the human rights to health by adequately funding the HIV response. The massive gains in access to HIV prevention, treatment and care services made possible through the Global Fund will be jeopardized if high-income governments fail to live up to their pledges, delay payment of the pledges, and/or fail to commit to increased funding for the Global Fund. Recipient governments must likewise increase their own domestic spending for HIV programmes and honour their commitments to increase general health spending.
The UNAIDS Executive Director and the staff of the Joint Programme, in the Secretariat and Co-sponsors, should be strong, vocal and consistent advocates for the restoration and increase of financial support to the global AIDS response, including to the Global Fund as one of its main financing mechanisms.

The full text of the Reference Group statement and recommendations can be accessed, in English, French, Spanish and Russian, via the website of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board NGO Delegation at http://unaidspcbngo.org/.

The UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights was established in 2002 to advise the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS on all matters relating to HIV and human rights. The Reference Group speaks with an independent voice; thus, its views do not necessarily reflect the views of the UNAIDS Secretariat or any of the UNAIDS Cosponsors.

The Reference Group thanks Michel Kazatchkine for his leadership and, in particular, for his strong support of human rights during his years at the Global Fund. It urges the incoming, new management to approach the funding crisis as a human rights issue and looks forward to working with it, in particular to ensure full funding of the Global Fund andto support the timely implementation of the human rights components of the new Global Fund strategy.

For additional information about the Reference Group or its statement and recommendations, contact Ralf Jürgens, Reference Group Secretariat, at rjurgens@sympatico.ca.

How To Manage Conflicts

2012-01-31T19:22:59Z

By Mike Frick

In previous posts, we've described our approach to creating a strategic plan, writing a budget and managing volunteers - the three core skill areas covered by our nonprofit coaching programs in China. We believe that facilitating meetings is another essential skill for nonprofit groups, and that effective meeting facilitation requires solving conflicts in a fair, transparent and non-threatening manner.

Many of our partners in China describe their frustration attending meetings that too frequently devolve into off topic conversations, meandering discussions or sometimes even personal attacks. Given all of the time we spend in meetings, we've developed an approach that facilitators can use to keep meetings on track and defuse conflicts. We've divided these techniques into low, medium and high level "interventions" that start small and progressively build to more direct action depending on the seriousness of the situation. Starting with smaller, less-threatening interventions helps to build a sense of trust and safety for all involved; higher level interventions should only be used when other approaches have proved ineffective at solving the problem.

]]> Regardless of the scenario, ground rules are the foundation of low-to-high level interventions. We recommend that groups establish ground rules at the beginning of meetings and agree on sanctions for members who repeatedly violate these rules.

The scenario below illustrates this low-to-high level interventions approach applied to a situation in which fighting between two members disrupts a meeting.

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Scenario 1: someone in a meeting begins to verbally attack another member.

Low-level: The facilitator should intervene by reminding the offending party of the ground rules. Facilitators might say, "I want to remind everyone that our ground rules require that we mutually respect one another and avoid personal attacks. Let's focus on making concrete suggestions to the whole group instead of singling people out."

Mid-level: If an individual continues to personally attack other members of the group, the facilitator should address this person directly: "This is not your first time attacking someone else in this room. Our ground rules make it clear that we need to uphold mutual respect. Is there something constructive that you would like to contribute?"

High-level: If the attacks continue, the facilitator should call for a time out and stop the meeting. During the break, the facilitator should meet separately with each involved party. Point out that it is inappropriate to bring personal feelings into a meeting and emphasize the common purpose and objective of the meeting. Make it clear that if the offending individual wants to leave the meeting, that's his/her choice, but he/she cannot continue to personally attack other members of the group.

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One of our partners in China recently shared an experience in which he faced this kind of conflict. While attending a meeting with other nonprofit directors, he noticed that two women had begun to fight. Their remarks were quickly escalating into heated personal attacks. After using lower level interventions, he called for a ten minute break. During the break, he took each woman aside and listened to her side of the story before working with each party to develop steps for moving forward. In doing so, he emphasized their shared background as nonprofit directors working toward the right to health as a reason for respecting one another and avoiding conflict in the future.

Low-to-high level interventions can solve more than heated personal arguments. Facilitators can adopt a similar approach to handle off-topic discussions, side bar conversations, people returning late from breaks and cell phones interrupting meetings. The approach can also be adapted to respond to people who dominate conversation or to encourage quieter members of the group to participate. Here's an example of low-to-high interventions applied to a less heated scenario.

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Scenario 2: One person in the meeting is talking at length and monopolizing conversation, unaware that other people have stopped listening.

Low-level: The facilitator might begin by saying "I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I'm not clear how your comments are related to the topic under discussion. Can you speak more directly to the item on our agenda?"

Mid-level: If the individual continues to talk at length, the facilitator should step in a second time: "I'm sorry to interrupt again, but I'm a little anxious about the time. Looking ahead, there are still several items on our agenda that we need to discuss. Can you summarize your main point in one or two sentences?"

High-level: If an individual has a habit of talking at length and getting people sidetracked, the facilitator might pull him/her aside during a break in the meeting to speak privately. Start by thanking the individual for his/her valuable contributions to the discussion, but point out that his/her behavior is making it difficult to discuss all of the agenda items while still giving equal time to all members of the group. Encourage the individual to be more conscious of the time and give other members of the group opportunities to speak.

Report on the Impact of China's 2010 "Strike Hard Campaign": A Crackdown on Sex Work

2012-01-24T16:13:09Z

The 2010 "Strike Hard Campaign" put in place a zero tolerance policy on sex work, gambling and drugs all across China. While many brothels and popular clubs were closed ultimately sex workers continued work out in more remote areas. This geographic shift cut people off from essential health services, HIV/AIDS education, and even funeral services for women who die while cut off from their families.

Here in its first major report The China Sex Worker Organization Network Forum trained its members to document the effects of the crackdown. With interviews with close to 300 sex workers from around the country the report documents how "local stakeholders, including sex workers, owners of EEs and sex worker service organizations, see the impacts of these crackdowns and their effects on HIV intervention."

The report (here in its original in Chinese and translated by volunteers in the network into English here), published in December 2011, finds that the crackdown was a disaster for them.

News of the Week | Jan 20, 2012

2012-01-24T15:42:32Z

1. [China Dialogue] What the smog can't conceal
(English) http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/4734-What-the-smog-can-t-conceal-
(Chinese) http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/ch/4734-What-the-smog-can-t-conceal-

Since the autumn, a series of polluted "hazes" in cities across China - and discussion of that now ubiquitous term for fine particulate matter, PM2.5 - have attracted widespread public attention. So too has the official response: while urban air pollution fast became a focus of public anger, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), which is responsible for monitoring air quality, took the opportunity to show its sluggish and bureaucratic side.

2. [Blog | New Yorker] The Chinese View of SOPA
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2012/01/the-chinese-view-of-sopa.html

In China, the reaction to American protests has ranged from sympathy to gentle Schadenfreude. A commentator known as Dr. Zhang wrote on Weibo, the Twitter-like micro-blogging site: "I've come up with a perfect solution: You can come to China to download all your pirated media, and we'll go to America to discuss politically sensitive subjects."

]]> 3. [The Irrawaddy] Thein Sein Demonstrates Political Skills in First Foreign Media Interview
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22896

Burma's President Thein Sein gave his first interview to a member of the foreign media this week (see the interview on Washington Post). Thein Sein proved to be a skillful politician, diplomat and negotiator, as he repeatedly pressed the main talking points he wanted to communicate to his international audience and deftly sidestepped issues that are problematic for his government.

4. [MSMGF] Flying the flag for ladyboys: Thai airline takes on transgender flight attendants
http://www.msmgf.org/index.cfm/id/11/aid/5752

Sringern - or Mew, as she likes to be called - is one of four "ladyboys" working for PC Air, the first Thai airline to employ transgender people. Finding work beyond the entertainment and cosmetic sectors is difficult for Thailand's "third sex", who are said to be more numerous here than anywhere else in the world - so this job, says Mew, is "a dream come true".

5. [The Global Times] Feng shui carried too far
http://www.globaltimes.cn/NEWS/tabid/99/ID/692932/categoryId/42/Feng-shui-carried-too-far.aspx

Officials spend taxpayers' money on an ancient belief system, hoping to advance their careers or change their luck.

6. [The Global Times] Are Uyghurs underrepresented in Xinjiang's government?
http://www.globaltimes.cn/NEWS/tabid/99/ID/692221/Are-Uyghurs-underrepresented-in-Xinjiangs-government-leadership.aspx

Ethnic minorities' share of high-ranking government jobs in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has been a controversial issue, as most of the top posts in local Party committees are often held by Han, China's largest ethnic majority, while minorities usually hold the top administrative jobs. What are the reasons behind this political setup? What can we do to optimize the power distribution system?

Grievances Keep Coming - But Where Do They Go?

2012-01-06T22:32:28Z

By Sara L.M. Davis

Yu Hua's New York Times op-ed, "In China, Grievances Keep Coming", says that China's petitioning system works alongside the legal system as a parallel way to channel thousands of individual grievances each year. In fact, as Asia Catalyst sees in our work with Chinese AIDS NGOs, the petitioning system undermines social stability.

]]> China's petitioning system dates back thousands of years, and has become an accepted channel for individuals to complain about corrupt and abusive local officials to their higher-ups. Many begin by complaining locally, and when they get no satisfaction, petitioners may chase their complaints all the way up the hierarchy until they arrive in Beijing. As Yu Hua says, this grievance system offers "a fantasy" that incorruptible senior officials will intercede to help petitioners - in fact, Chinese scholar Yu Jianrong has found that only 0.2% of their cases are resolved.

Because petitioning doesn't create effective accountability for local officials, and because of the official abuses that often result, the grievance process actually worsens social unrest.

This is an issue that we see in Asia Catalyst's work with grassroots HIV/AIDS nonprofits in China. AIDS NGOs in Beijing and Henan province are besieged by petitioners for help, especially around World AIDS Day (December 1), and 2011 was no exception. Thousands of people infected with HIV/AIDS through unsafe blood collection and hospital blood transfusions in the 1990s have petitioned the government for compensation, especially since law courts, fearful of being inundated by thousands of cases, often directly refuse to accept them.

Many blood disaster victims struggle in poverty. As one woman interviewed by the Dongjen Center for Human Rights Education and Action said, "In my home there are six mouths to feed, and all of us have to rely on my husband to get constructions jobs...[he] is not healthy either. We just work all day and cry all night."

Some groups, such as Dongjen, have called for a national compensation fund. But to date, there has been no national response to the world's largest HIV/AIDS blood disaster. As a result, on World AIDS Day, victims of the blood disaster descend on the capital in droves.

How do officials respond? In the absence of a clear national policy on the blood disaster, combined with heavy pressure from above to maintain social stability at any price, officials are left between a rock and a hard place.

Thus, as Yu Hua writes, some local officials pay off victims in order to keep them quiet. Though the government provides free antiretroviral treatment to all people with HIV/AIDS in China, the high cost of treating opportunistic infections and lack of reliable income means that many blood disaster victims are constantly desperate for funds. They go through these meagre government payoffs quickly - and then go right back to petitioning.

Those are the generous officials. Many others threaten petitioners with force. Local government officials often send 'retrievers' or 'interceptors' (接防人) to kidnap petitioners from their locality. Some petitioners are detained in 'black jails', and others are sent to abusive detention facilities. Many are just sent home and told to keep quiet. Blood disaster victims say that some officials try to combine payments and threats together - the carrot and stick approach.

However, the use of force gets many petitioners more fired up - now to seek accountability for their beating and detention, in addition to their original demands for compensation for the blood disaster.

When injustice piles on injustice, it only fuels more petitioning. Carl Minzner writes that the system of official incentives that reward officials for maintaining 'social harmony' is at the root of the problem. In his article "Riots and Cover-ups: Counter-productive Control of Local Agents in China", he asks why officials engage in abusive behavior even when national directives prohibit it, and argues that the answer is the Communist Party metrics used to evaluate officials for year-end bonuses and promotions:

Party cadre evaluation systems heavily stress social order statistics. These sanction local Party secretaries based on the number of citizen petitioners who leave the jurisdiction to present grievances to higher-level officials. This leads local officials to resort to repressive tactics (including illegal detentions) to prevent petitioners from reaching higher officials and thereby negatively affecting the career prospects of local officials.

In other words, the problem is not that China lacks systems of accountability for officials, but rather that a system that incentivizes cover-ups is not the kind of accountability that creates social stability for the long term.

What would work better? A stronger and more independent legal system - and a national compensation fund to give blood disaster victims relief.

Sara L.M. Davis is the executive director of Asia Catalyst.

Will China's New Code of Conduct Protect Hospital Patients?

2012-01-04T23:38:37Z

Wish tree at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna

By Mike Frick

Last week, China's Ministry of Health released a draft "Code of Conduct for Medical Practitioners" for public review and comment. The document lays out a code of conduct for hospital administrators, doctors, nurses and other medical personnel. According to the ILO, many Chinese hospitals refuse to treat patients with HIV/AIDS - so there is definitely a need for new policies. We reviewed the draft code within Asia Catalyst and found some areas of progress, as well as some areas where the standards need a lot more work.

]]>

Combatting corruption: One piece of good news: the Code of Conduct addresses the need to reduce corruption. Article 8, for example, prohibits physicians from accepting gifts from patients or their relatives - a widespread practice in Chinese hospitals that places a heavy burden on families in need. Article 8 also calls on physicians to refuse free medications, medical equipment and recreational activities offered by medical sales companies, gifts that distort physician incentives and lead them to recommend more expensive care.

Improving informed consent: Many of the grassroots groups we work with tell us that there's an urgent need to ensure that patients have informed consent in Chinese hospitals, and we were encouraged to see informed consent - a basic tenet of medical ethics - appear throughout the Code of Conduct. Article 6 calls on all medical practitioners to respect informed consent and patient privacy. Article 25 asks doctors to fully educate patients and their relatives about new medical technologies and to respect patient decision-making about their use.

These are positive steps; they'd be even more positive if there were clearer mechanisms in the code of conduct to ensure accountability when hospital workers violate the code. So much for the good news - here are some of the weak points.

Universal precautions: The Code of Conduct does not mention universal precautions (sometimes called standard precautions), an essential policy when combatting medical discrimination against patients living with HIV/AIDS and other blood-borne illnesses. What are universal precautions? Basically, these include wearing medical gloves, goggles and face shields when handling all patient's bodily fluids - and not just with some patients that health care workers suspect might be living with HIV.

Because they are used with all patients equally, universal precautions help to reduce the stigma and discrimination associated with fear of occupational exposure to the AIDS virus. As a report published by Asia Catalyst and Phoenix, a Chinese HIV/AIDS group, documented, this fear of occupational infection is a significant barrier to healthcare access among people living with HIV/AIDS in China, who are routinely turned away from hospitals - or in some cases, required to pay for all of the medical equipment used during their care.

Non-discrimination: Since we work with sex workers, drug users, LGBTQ people, and others at risk of discrimination, I was really disappointed by the Code of Conduct's poor attention to medical discrimination against patients in hospitals. Only one article addresses it: Article 6 calls for non-discrimination in medical settings on the basis of race, religion, origin, social status, disability and illness -- but omits age, sex and sexual orientation. Age, gender and sexual orientation not only influence individual risk for morbidity and mortality; they are often themselves the basis for medical discrimination. Leaving out these essential categories means leaving young people, older people, women and LGBTQ people without protection they need.

The "Code of Conduct for Medical Practitioners" arrives at an important moment in China's AIDS epidemic. Chinese health care professionals will encounter growing numbers of HIV-positive patients in the coming decade as the government expands free testing and treatment programs. Establishing clear standards for informed consent, reducing corruption and educating health professional on universal precautions and non-discrimination will help to ensure access to equitable, ethical and affordable care for people living with HIV/AIDS and other patients who need help from China's medical system.

Mike Frick is China program officer at Asia Catalyst.

Asia Catalyst in the People's Daily

2011-12-12T21:24:08Z

It's not every day that Asia Catalyst appears in the Wall Street Journal...or the People's Daily, the official organ of the Chinese Communist Party. It was a pleasant surprise, then, when both happened in the same week.

Here's a link to an article about Chinese civil rights group Tianxia Gong and their campaign to end employment-related discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in China. Staff of the grassroots NGO asked friends and supporters to pose for the camera with signs reading "PLWHA can be teachers" and "End discrimination against PLWHA". UNAIDS picked it up, and over 12,000 people around the country have had their photos taken. We are honored to be part of this important campaign.

Shanghai Daily Highlights Red Ribbon Home

2011-12-04T02:17:02Z

We're delighted to see the fine work of Red Ribbon Home was featured in the Shanghai Daily on December 1, World AIDS Day. As the Daily write, Red Ribbon Home was founded by Zhang Lin, a woman living with HIV/AIDS, in Ruili, Yunnan. Red Ribbon Home provides frontline services to people living with HIV/AIDS, and holds social activities to provide a safe space for the community to connect with one another.

Red Ribbon Home was selected as a member of Asia Catalyst's 2012 NGO Leadership Cohort program, which is training ten grassroots health rights groups in organizational management and advocacy skills.

Know It: The Rights Framework

2011-12-01T12:41:20Z

Asia Catalyst, Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group and Dongjen Center for Human Rights Education and Action announce the publication of the second in our series of human rights manuals for grassroots groups from HIV/AIDS-affected communities: Know It: The Rights Framework. ]]> Know It, Prove It, Change It: A Rights Curriculum for Grassroots Groups aims to help grassroots groups to understand their basic rights, document abuses, and advocate for change. The series has three parts:

Know It: The Rights Framework introduces human rights standards and links them to real-life issues faced by marginalized communities,
Prove It: Documenting Rights Abuses explains how to plan and conduct rights research, and
Change It: Ending Rights Abuses shows how to plan and carry out practical local, national and global policy advocacy campaigns.

Know It gives an overview to the relationship between HIV/AIDS and human rights, introduces the human rights system, and uses real-life questions and cases shared with us by grassroots NGOs in China and Thailand to show how these international standards apply in practice. It includes a manual and a trainer's supplement with exercises to use in workshops.

The book will be available in a final design format in print, as well as in Chinese and Thai translations, in early 2012. You can download Know It here: KnowIt.pdf

Prove It: Documenting Rights Abuses is also available online for free download in English, Chinese and Thai here: http://asiacatalyst.org/news/kipici.html.

中国应当赋予艾滋病感染者平等的权利

2011-12-01T04:22:16Z

作者：马克海伍德和王翠凤

目前在中国，成千上万的艾滋病患者和感染者在合法化的歧视面前沦落为二等公民。我们来自南非和美国两个国家。这两个国家历史上都曾经历过许多制度化的歧视：南非的种族隔离制度和美国南部各州的吉姆克罗法。我们应当从我们自己过去的经历中吸取经验教训和展望未来。

]]> 现在中国的艾滋病患者和感染者动辄受到各种歧视。他们可以因感染或患了艾滋病而被雇主解雇甚至于被赶出家门。学校公开拒绝接收父母为艾滋病患者或感染者的儿童入学。很多医院拒绝为艾滋病患者和感染者进行治疗，那里的医生和护理人员因缺乏对艾滋病的正确了解而深恐受到艾滋病的传染。尽管新的艾滋病行动5年计划和2006年艾滋病条例规定了艾滋病患者和感染者有其合法的权利，但却没有任何在全国范围内禁止歧视的法律规定。而事实上在一些省份，法律却禁止艾滋病患者和感染者从事饮食服务工作，禁止他们进入公共游泳池。

控告政府机构和部门雇主涉嫌歧视的中国律师在法庭上无法胜诉，因为法庭和政府机构同一个鼻孔出气。民权律师于方强指出："我们面前的道路是艰难曲折的。"

此外，成千上万因为在政府医院里接受污染的血液和血液制品而感染艾滋病的人无法行使其起诉的合法权利。许多人曾争取让政府医院对其使用污染的血液进行输血负责，但亚洲促进会和东珍惟谦艾滋病法律中心中国组昨天发布的一份报告发现，越来越多的法院拒绝受理任何有关艾滋病的诉讼。

缺乏合法的权利使得社会各个方面的艾滋病患者和感染者感到无助和沮丧。一名因艾滋病的原因而多次被解雇的男子向我们述说，"我不明白为什么这个社会甚至不给我们生存的机会。"另一个人表示，被解雇的沉重打击让他感到走投无路甚至开始在想重新沉醉于毒品。"

其实，不仅是那些受害者在精神上受到制度化的歧视。印度的圣雄甘地在其著作中指出，压迫者在精神上摧残受压迫者的同时也在摧毁着自己的灵魂："你想要看到的这个世界上的变化就是你自己。"他的哲理和他所倡导的非暴力抗争运动最终推翻了殖民主义。在南非和美国，他的思想启发了众多的民权领袖向制度化的歧视发起了挑战。

上个世纪50年代在美国，非洲裔美国人在使用公共巴士，餐厅，厕所，学校和饮水机等方面处处受到隔离，看起来这是永远也不可能改变的。在南非种族隔离制度下，南非的黑人不得不在被隔离的"家园"里生活，无论在公共场所还是私人生活的各个方面都因其种族而被隔离。在这两个国家，成千上万的人以和平的抵制和游行来推动变革，很多人在由政府当局挑起的暴力对抗的活动中失去了生命。

中国不应当重蹈同样血淋淋的覆辙。事实上，在国际层面上，中国已经围绕艾滋病的议题签署了一系列谴责歧视和促进人权的声明。中国领导人应当从其它国家曾经犯过的错误中吸取经验和教训，排除导致艾滋病患者和感染者转为地下的制度化歧视，并通过这一过程，让生活在恐惧中的人们敢于出来接受艾滋病的检查和治疗。中国应当设立一个基金，在全国范围内通过国营的医院来帮助成千上万的艾滋病患者和感染者，应当对社会和公众进行宣导和教育以帮助人们正确认识艾滋病的传播和预防。

基于一个人血液中的成分所进行的歧视与基于一个人的肤色所进行的歧视同样都是野蛮和不人道的。中国应当赋予艾滋病患者和感染者平等的权利，应当发起一场运动来制止前面所描述的不公平和歧视。历史上南非和美国都曾经历过制度化的种族主义，而今天两国的总统都已经是由黑人来担任了。两个国家都还仍然存在着许多的不平等现象 - 摆在我们面前的仍旧是一条漫长的道路和行程。但变化不仅是可能的而且是能够实现的 - 对中国来说，抗击艾滋病的广泛流行是一项迫在眉睫的工作和任务。

马克海伍德是南非的公共利益法律中心SECTION27的执行主管，王翠凤是旨在支援亚洲健康权利团体的美国非营利组织亚洲促进会的主任。

Prejudice Mars China's AIDS Record

2011-12-01T04:14:31Z

From the Wall Street Journal Asia

By Mark Heywood and Sara L.M. Davis

China will observe World AIDS Day on Thursday with events in which Chinese leaders publicly embrace people living with HIV/AIDS. But on every other day of the year, hundreds of thousands of Chinese living with HIV/AIDS are treated as second-class citizens.

]]> Beijing has signed a range of international declarations on HIV/AIDS that denounce discrimination and promote human rights. Yet Chinese citizens can be fired from their jobs and even evicted from their homes on the basis of their HIV status. Many are denied treatment by hospitals, where many ill-informed nurses and doctors fear infection.

Although the new five-year Action AIDS Plan and the 2006 Regulations on AIDS say that people with HIV should have rights, there are no national laws prohibiting discrimination. Indeed, in some provinces it is illegal to hire people with HIV/AIDS for work that involves handling food, or to allow them to use a public swimming pool. Schools are free to openly refuse children whose parents are living with HIV/AIDS.

Compounding the AIDS crisis in China is the lack of any policy to address the 1990s blood disaster, in which for-profit blood donation centers spread the virus in the central plains region. Thousands of people infected with HIV through contaminated blood and blood products as a result have been unable to sue those responsible.

Chinese group Korekata AIDS Law Center, which represents such cases, reports that a growing number of courts are refusing to hear any lawsuits relating to HIV/AIDS. Chinese lawyers who sued employers that discriminate against people living with HIV/AIDS have lost in the courts, which consistently side with the employers.

Institutionalized discrimination drives people living with HIV/AIDS underground, spreads the virus more quickly, and makes many people fearful to even take an HIV test. This makes educating the public and tackling discrimination not only a matter of human rights, but also a public health imperative.

The government could do much more to educate the public about HIV, how it is transmitted and that it can be prevented. A public hearing about how the virus was spread by blood-sellers could lead to greater public understanding and acceptance. China could establish a national fund to compensate the thousands infected with HIV/AIDS through state-run hospitals.

Every country in the world faced the same challenges in the early stages of the epidemic. China has taken great steps forward in acknowledging and beginning to fight HIV/AIDS. But until people living with HIV/AIDS can come out from underground, the epidemic will take many more lives.

Mr. Heywood is executive director of SECTION27, a South African public interest law center. Ms. Davis is executive director of Asia Catalyst, a U.S. nonprofit that supports health rights groups in Asia.

Urgent Appeal: Thai People Living with HIV/AIDS Devastated by Floods

2011-11-08T22:36:32Z

Asia Catalyst is urging supporters and friends to give what you can to the Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (TNP+) in their urgent appeal for a disaster response.

According to TNP+, the floods in 26 provinces of Thailand which began in October 2011 have affected about 2 million people. In some towns and villages the water is as high as three meters above street level.

The members of the Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (TNP+) who live in those provinces are affected in many ways:

- homes and household equipment have been damaged, with water levels reaching the roofs of some properties

- equipment damaged

- farm land damaged

- cars and motorcycles under water

]]> To respond to the crisis, as the government response has been slow, TNP+ has set up an emergency relief fund. Their objective is to mobilize flood relief operations and rehabilitation for people living with HIV/AIDS so that these people can get back to their normal life as soon as possible. Each family will receive seed money of 5,000 baht (US$162) to perform repairs to their homes, acquire new equipment for their professions, and buy necessary household equipment.

As of November 2011, the TNP+ database has 227 families from 15 provinces that need relief assistance. Many more are expected after the waters recede.

To make a tax-exempt donation: Go to www.asiacatalyst.org/get_involved and click on the "Donate" button, which will connect you with Paypal. When you fill out the information form for Paypal, add the note "For TNP+." We will pass on all donations to TNP+ minus a 5% administration fee.

To give directly to TNP+ (without the tax-exempt status), please make a wire transfer to:

Bank name : Siam Commercial Bank, Ladprao 101 Branch

Account name :The Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS Foundation

Account number : 233 -213664-2

Account name: The Thai Network of People Living HIV/AIDS

Swift Code : SICOTHBK

"我们感觉很骄傲" -- 访问泰国性工作者机构EMPOWER

2011-11-08T22:19:21Z

By Carol Wang

EMPOWER："我们是性工作者。我们用自己的智慧和技巧挣钱。我们感到很骄傲，因为我们能够用自己的劳动所得去支持自己的家庭和生活。我们在工作中相互照顾；我们为安全的工作条件、平等的待遇和权利而奋斗。我们为泰国的经济发展做出了很大贡献，很多游客为我们而来。我们也是活跃的公民，我们关心政治、经济、环境、法律、权利，等等。我们努力在社会中占有一席之地，发出自己的声音。有些人认为我们是麻烦的制造者，但实际上我们在帮助社会解决问题。我们是性工作者，我们是EMPOWER。"

下载PDF: http://www.asiacatalyst.org/news/flower201107-empower.pdf