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.
On
July 5th, China convened the first meeting of the Red Ribbon Forum,
a gathering of government officials, NGOs and experts to discuss AIDS and human
rights concerns. Mark Heywood, the chair of the UNAIDS Theme Group on HIV/AIDS
and Human Rights, delivered a speech calling for more space for civil society. During
an intense - and in China, unprecedented - discussion period, civil society
representatives raised frank concerns about a range of human rights issues,
including ongoing restrictions on civil society, and demands for compensation
for the blood scandal that transmitted HIV to thousands of villagers. The full
text of Heywood's speech follows.