Global Voices Online

AIDS 2008: Lifting the Travel Ban on HIV-Positive People

Juhie Bhatia · 12:57 · East Asia , Americas

lingua → hi · fr · es · zht · zhs

The XVII International AIDS Conference ended in Mexico City last week, leaving participants with much to focus on until the next conference, which takes place in Vienna in 2010. One of these areas of focus are the travel restrictions imposed on HIV-positive people entering a country for the short or long-term. Conference organizers and many officials at the event condemned these policies as discriminatory and shameful.

SciDev.Net's conference blog reports that:

“An issue widely discussed in the AIDS 2008 conference is the fact that several countries deny the entry, stay or residence of HIV-positive people because of their HIV status.

According to the publication Entry denied, published by UNAIDS in partnership with other organisations and distributed at the conference, at least 67 countries are on the list of those that deny the entry to people living with HIV/AIDS.”

Mexico, where AIDS 2008 was held, has no traveling restrictions for people with HIV/AIDS, but 65 or so other nations enforce some degree of restriction on the estimated 33 million people living with HIV globally. Seven nations, according to the European AIDS Treatment Group, impose a complete entry ban on HIV-positive people: Brunei, Oman, Qatar, Sudan, South Korea, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Countries with such restrictions often argue that it helps protect public health and avoid costs associated with treating HIV-positive people from other nations.

David Cozac, who blogged about the human rights sessions at AIDS 2008, says that experts disagreed with such arguments.

“During a session on travel restrictions for people living with HIV, participants decried the fact that although there is no evidence that travel restrictions have a positive public health impact, 67 countries still have restrictions in place.”

One of the countries with such restrictions is China. Despite hopes that China would lift its HIV-related traveling restrictions before the Olympics, the country has maintained them, even during the games. Under their current regulations, tourists and short-term visitors must declare their HIV status, and those planning to stay long-term must undergo a blood test; if found to be HIV-positive, they are refused entry.

Denise Patterson, blogging from Thailand, comments on China's ban of visitors with AIDS and other health conditions during the Olympics:

” A ban on people with mental illnesses or sexually transmitted diseases? That is very amusing. If the Chinese government believes they can control every aspect of the Olympics, they are sadly mistaken…

… According to 2007 statistics, published by the World Health Organization, the HIV/AIDS rate in China is 2.9% of the population. The ‘ban' doesn't seem to be working.”

However, China may be responding to the pressure. China Daily reports that Hao Yang, deputy director of the ministry's disease control and prevention bureau, told the publication at AIDS 2008 that the two-decade-old HIV/AIDS travel ban will likely be lifted in 2009.

China may be following America's lead for change. In July U.S. President George W. Bush signed legislation to repeal the statutory ban on entry into the U.S. for HIV-positive tourists, students, and immigrants, taking the first step needed to eliminate the ban. However, for the ban to be completely lifted, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) must now remove HIV from a list of diseases that prevent people from entering the U.S. HIV is currently still on the list.

Kevinf, posting on ToTheCenter.com, writes about the positive reaction to this repeal.

“Many AIDS experts and rights activists find the new legislation to be a cause for celebration. Previously, travel restrictions could cause more trouble than they prevented, causing people with HIV to lie about their condition. It was discriminatory and would also lead to many of the infected to lie.”

David Munar posts this video of Rev. Christo Greyling of World Vision International, where he discusses why such travel bans are detrimental and raises questions about the U.S. repeal.

LauraK, blogging for AIDS 2008's youth site, warns that the U.S. repeal is a major step, but not the final one.

“It is now up to the Secretary of Health to change regulations to reflect the new legislation. HIV must be taken off of the list of diseases that mean inadmissibility to the United States, but Congresswoman [Barbara] Lee is confident that this will happen soon.”

She goes on to share how such travel restrictions have impacted those with HIV, as she witnessed at an AIDS 2008 questioning period.

“One man came forward to express the sense of betrayal felt by those forced out by the restrictions, he had personal experience as a US citizen living in Canada with a partner who is HIV-positive. He still loved his country, he told the panel, but he was ashamed and angry with his government for initiating the repressive legislation that forced him to choose between his country and his partner, as well as for taking 20 years to address it.”

Photo of Red Traveling Suitcase by tofutti break on Flickr.

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Georgia, Russia: The War's Virtual Dimension

Veronica Khokhlova · 00:06, August 16th, 2008 · Eastern & Central Europe , Central Asia & Caucasus

lingua → fr · es · bn

See Global Voices special coverage page on the South Ossetia crisis.

Like most other contemporary conflicts, the ongoing one in Georgia and South Ossetia has had a virtual dimension from its very start. Below are two bloggers' reflections on the wars raging outside the actual conflict zones.

LJ user basya - Ksenia Basilashvili, journalist with Radio Echo of Moscow and daughter of Russian actor Oleg Basilashvili - wrote this (RUS) about her family's origin and the coverage of the war by Russian and Western TV channels:

[…] When I hear [the word “Tskhinval“], I always think about my family's roots, about this faraway land - what should I call it? And I imagine the soil warmed up by the sun, a hot [lavash flatbread] right out of the oven, red pungent homemade wine… I think of how my humble grandfather packed and left for Moscow, and how he received education there and ended up heading the [College of Communications]. […]

I'm watching [the Russian state-owned RTR's Vesti news show and Channel 1]. The dead, the injured, refugees, ruined buildings, pale children and old people in the basements.

I'm watching BBC and CNN - the dead, the injured, refugees, ruined buildings, pale children and old people in the basements.

Death and misery.

There is no difference between the pictures. Only [the former] are showing Tskhinval, and [the latter] are showing [Gori], [the former] are presenting this slaughter of civilians as “the aggression of Georgia against South Ossetia,” while [the latter are presenting it as] “the aggression of Russia against Georgia.” It's as if the TV channels have taken position in the trenches and know for sure what's going on. As if they know who the enemy, the devil, is. For us it's Georgia, for them it's Russia. And the truth is somewhere near…

Would be good to mix CNN and Vesti in one glass, it would make a great news channel, with the views of two, three, four sides [of the conflict].

I don't want to discuss here why they were at one point giving out [Russian passports to South Ossetians], who was the first one to start it all, who gave the orders, who is guilty. Who are the good ones and the bad ones.

Now it does not matter at all anymore. Because while the political and informational wars are taking place, over there - in South Ossetia, in Georgia - people are dying and suffering. […]

Here's one of the comments (RUS) to this post:

homo_loquens:

Ksenia, please tell me, have you spent more than five minutes watching CNN and BBC? Haven't you seen a BBC interview with [Russia's foreign affairs minister Sergei Lavrov] and a CNN interview with [Vitaly Churkin, Russia's ambassador to the UN], and regular live reports from Moscow on the position of [PM Vladimir Putin and president Dmitry Medvedev] on both channels? […] Because you are not the first one of those who seem normal and bright to me, who are writing this, and I'm already beginning to wonder if I'm perhaps hallucinating - or do I have some different CNN and BBC broadcasting at my home?

LJ user pepsikolka - Samira Kuznetsova, a resident of [Poti], whose other posts have been featured on Global Voices here and here - wrote this (RUS) about her recent experience at the Russian-language social networking portal, Odnoklassniki.ru (”Classmates”):

There used to be a nice, peaceful, kind group at Odnoklassniki.ru site, [devoted to the city of Poti]. Tengo and I were posting lots of pictures there, and others weren't lazy, too. We interacted, joked, shared memories of the past. There was not a single day that I didn't write something in this group.

We were united by our city. Some people still live in it, for others it's the city of their childhood, where they spent their happiest years […].

I was taking a special pleasure in [photographing] a window on the third floor of the “jeans house,” the so-called Pentagon neighborhood, a willow tree on the Rioni river and the old swimming pool in our school's courtyard.

Adult people were happy as kids.

- Here, here I used to walk with my girlfriend.
- And here we used to go fishing.
- And on this bench we played lotto.
- Oy, here's my window, I used to sit for hours in front of it, waiting for mama to return from work.
- Samira, take a picture of this and that.
- Oy, the Pioneers' House and a puddle as big as 20 years years ago.

Now there is war at this forum. A wall of misunderstanding, reproaches, accusations, abuse, and people are deserting it like refugees. Today, an acquaintance of mine has written me to say that she's leaving the group. As if there was no love and nostalgia yesterday. Today it's a battlefield.

[…]

My former neighbor is screaming that we are NATO's servants. And she hates us for that.

And she used to teach me to play the piano. […]