XV INTL AIDS CONFERENCE, JULY 04 <TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgcolor=#ffffff BODY LINK="#333366" VLINK="#333360"> <UL><a name="top"></a> </a><font size=2><A HREF="http://www.healthgap.org ">Health GAP Home</a> | <A HREF="http://www.healthgap.org/press/press_index.html">Health GAP Press Center</a></font><BR> <HR> <font face=Verdana,Geneva> <FONT SIZE=2><P align=center><IMG SRC="../img/hgap_logo.gif"><P> <B>Health GAP</B><BR> <A HREF="http://www.healthgap.org/">www.healthgap.org</A></P> <B><FONT SIZE=2> <b>Thai Treatment Action Group (TTAG)| ACCESS Foundation | Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (TNP+) | Health GAP (Global Access Project) </b><P> PRESS ADVISORY </B><P> For Immediate Release: 3 July 2004 <BR> For information, contact Karyn Kaplan at +66-1-866-1238 or Asia Russell at +66-5-156-9232 <BR></FONT><BR><font face=Verdana,Geneva size=2> </B>  </P></FONT><B><FONT SIZE=4><P ALIGN="CENTER"><font face=Verdana,Geneva>  Thai and U.S. AIDS Treatment Activists Demand Accountability and Action on Global AIDS at the XV International AIDS Conference </B></B></FONT> </FONT><B><FONT SIZE=2><font face=Verdana,Geneva> </B></FONT></B> <FONT><B><FONT SIZE=2><P ALIGN="CENTER"><font face=Verdana,Geneva>  </B></B></FONT> </FONT><FONT SIZE=2><font face=Verdana,Geneva><B> People with HIV demand real "Access for All" at Opening Day March </B><P>  What: People living with HIV/AIDS and AIDS activists address discuss key policy issues regarding access to affordable treatment and comprehensive, science based prevention ahead of the XV International AIDS Conference scheduled for 11 July -16 July in Bangkok. The activists are holding a global protest and march on the opening day of the conference to demand accountability from heads of states, agencies, and individuals obstructing or failing to effectively address the gaps and inequities in HIV/AIDS treatment access, and demand real access for all. <P> When: 11 am, Tuesday, 6 July, 2004 <P> Where: Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand, Penthouse floor, Maneeya Centre Building, 518/5 Ploenchit Rod, Bangkok, phone 02 652 0580. <P> Speakers: * Kamon Uppakaew, Chairman of the Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (TNP+), on the importance of community-directed treatment scale up and prevention efforts. <P> * Sharonann Lynch, Director of International Policy for Health GAP on the Bush Administration and other wealthy governments' broken promises to provide adequate financial contributions to fight HIV/AIDS in developing countries and on the rise of ideological attacks on comprehensive HIV prevention efforts, including unproven "abstinence only" strategies being driven by the Bush Administration <P> * Nimit Tien-Udom, Director of ACCESS Foundation on the implications of the U.S.-Thai Free Trade Agreement on access to HIV/AIDS treatment in Thailand; <P> * Paisan Suwannawong, Director Thai Treatment Action Group (TTAG) on the importance of harm reduction, including needle exchange, to promote effective HIV prevention and the human rights of marginalized groups at high risk of HIV infection, such as injection drug users; <P> Speakers at this press conference will address these issues: <P> <ul> <li> National governments' refusal to prioritize the fight against AIDS, and refusal to transform their rhetoric into concrete economic and political action;</li> <li> Rich donor countries that have broken their promises to spend $10 billion annually fighting global AIDS by 2005;</li> <li> International agencies have not made good on the promise to fill the deadly gap in access to treatment. By 2005, by the most optimistic estimates, only 240,000 additional people, or 4% of the total need, will access HIV/AIDS treatment through financing from the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM)--the "principle funding vehicle" for the WHO's '3 x 5' treatment access initiative;</li> <li> PLWHA around the world are threatened by ideologues attempting to thwart access to basic HIV prevention tools, particularly for the most vulnerable groups including women, men who have sex with men, migrant workers, prisoners, and injecting drug users;</li> <li> PLWHA face human rights violations in the form of repressive drug wars and policies, although 1 in 3 new infections outside Africa are the result of sharing of injecting equipment, and needle exchange has been proven to save lives without increasing rates of drug use;</li> <li> PLWHA around the world face barriers to access to affordable generic medicines as a result of regional and bilateral trade agreements with the U.S., undermining national sovereignty and capacity to address public health priorities such as HIV/AIDS;</li> </ul> <P> A coalition of Thai activist groups and people living with HIV/AIDS networks will hold a demonstration and march on the opening day of the XV International AIDS Conference at the IMPACT Conference Center on 11 July 2004 at 4 pm. <P><P ALIGN="CENTER"> #30# </P> <br><a href=#top>Back to Top</a><br> </BODY> </HTML>