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On 25 October 2005, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), UNICEF and partners across the globe launched the most ambitious campaign to date to focus the world’s attention on the impact HIV and AIDS are having on children and young people today. Under the banner “Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS”, the Global Campaign on Children and AIDS sought to raise the alarm for the millions of children already living with or affected by HIV and press countries into taking action for them and future generations. For too long, children have been absent from the global HIV prevention, AIDS treatment and care agendas, and the campaign seeks to relegate these grievous omissions to the past.
This campaign could not have come at a more opportune time in East Asia and the Pacific. While HIV prevalence in the region remains relatively low, the virus poses a serious threat. East Asia’s massive population coupled with rapidly changing social and economic dynamics could escalate epidemics, and in turn, jeopardize the tremendous development gains that have greatly benefited millions of children in the region. The threat is of a different nature in the Pacific, where HIV could devastate sparse populations and undermine whole cultures and societies.
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HIV and AIDS have left virtually no country, rich or poor, untouched. The Pacific island countries are no exception. Fed by rapid economic and social changes, conditions have become increasingly conducive to the spread of HIV. Leaders are beginning to match words with action, and progress on prevention, testing and counselling has been made, but much more needs to be done. Children are the missing face of AIDS, and failure to take account of their critical needs for prevention, protection, treatment and care will acutely undermine the region's chance of achieving other development objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals.
HIV and AIDS are redefining the very meaning of childhood, depriving children and young people of the care, love and protection of their parents, of education and options for the future, and of protection against exploitation and abuse. All too often, children affected by HIV and AIDS are stigmatized and discriminated against or slip through social welfare systems, and those children who are already infected are missing out on vital treatment and medical care.
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This initiative is based on informing and informed understanding about causes and issues of HIV and AIDS from the perspective of governance and power relationship, unequal and unjust power equations. HIV and AIDS is also a political issue, warranting a political response from governments and the corporate sector. The role of civil society and non-government organisations is crucial in making change happen on ground. ActionAid is committed to galvanise synergy and facilitate co-ordinated action.
The issue of HIV and AIDS has socio-political, gender and cultural implications. There is a need to initiate organised action and concentrate public effort to fight the stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV. Changing this situation requires both societal action and public advocacy.
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Poverty has decreased dramatically throughout most of the Asia and Pacific region. From 1990 to 2000 the number of people living in poverty across the region fell by 165 million (ADB, 2004a). However, economic growth in India and the People’s Republic of China has driven much of the reduction in headline poverty figures. Other parts of the region, most notably the Pacific, have not witnessed a similar spectacular fall in poverty. Isolation, erosion of human capital, youth unemployment, inequitable growth, and political instability are challenges that Pacific states need to overcome if they are to reduce poverty and achieve development goals shared internationally.
The overall objectives of this study are to quantify the poverty impacts of an escalating HIV/AIDS crisis in the Pacific, and to raise awareness and increase understanding among key decision makers.
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An estimated 1,700 children under the age of 15 are infected by HIV around the globe everyday. Many of these are young children, infected at birth by mothers who are unaware of their HIV status. A host of social and economic factors are exacerbating the vulnerability of young women and if they are already living with HIV, they often suffer more sever stigma and discrimination than males.
The Pacific Islands are not being spared. Though data are limited, 1,028 HIV cases have been reported in the Pacific Island countries (excluding Papua New Guinea). Although the total number is still low compared to other countries in the region, the trend in new infections is a major cause for alarm.
Resource | Publications,
Asia-Pacific countries have reached a critical point in their response to HIV/AIDS. Until now, levels of HIV infection in most countries have remained relatively low and the response of most governments has been similarly low-key. The region’s HIV epidemics, however, are accelerating. A million Asian and Pacific people became infected with HIV last year and more than half a million people died of AIDS. The figures will be higher in 2004.
How much worse this appalling toll becomes will depend largely on what national leaders do now. At this stage, when epidemics are still concentrated in certain population groups and geographic areas, the opportunity still exists to avert a greater disaster.
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Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), in partnership with the National Centre Against Violence (NCAV) based in Mongolia, organised a consultation on 11-12 September, 2006 on 'Culture and Violence Against Women in Asia Pacific' with the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women.
The Consultation aimed to understand and articulate how, despite the fluidity and contestability of cultural norms, oppressive elements of culture, which invariably reflect and reinforce patriarchal power relations, gain dominant representation. The Consultation sought to strategise how a women's human rights agenda can be advanced in this context, providing effective strategies for both the women’s movement in Asia Pacific and for the UNSRVAW for inclusion in her recommendations to States and other actors.
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Although overall adult HIV prevalence in Asia is low - 0.4 per cent compared to 7.4 per cent in Africa - national prevalence varies widely. Within countries of the region, there are disturbingly high prevalence rates among some sub-populations and within various geographic areas. These locations and sub-populations are where concentrated epidemics build up, with substantially higher HIV prevalence than national prevalence levels can adequately capture.
A marked, sudden increase of HIV prevalence has occurred among sub-populations in a number of countries, and those experiencing a generalized epidemic bring lessons about the importance of proactive, early actions. Often countries have acted too late when the prevalence among sub-populations has begun to spread through what is known as "bridge populations" or people closely associated with these sub-groups. These bridge populations include clients of sex workers, their wives and girlfriends as well as sex partners of injecting drug users and men who have sex with men.
Resource | Publications,
HIV/AIDS has left virtually no country, rich or poor, untouched. The East Asia region is already witnessing some of the world’s fastest growing HIV epidemics. Progress has been made, and leaders are beginning to match words with action. Yet there is much more to be done. Children are the missing face of AIDS, and failure to take account of their critical needs – be it prevention, treatment or care – will undermine the region’s chance of reaching Millennium Development Goals.
The Global Campaign on Children and AIDS seeks to confront these challenges and renew the drive to meet the UNGASS targets as well as those made during the UN Special Session on Children in 2002. By forging a wide-ranging alliance with the governments, international and national partners, along with the civil society, and through leveraging resources, the campaign places children at the heart of the region’s HIV/AIDS response, and thus, contributes to East Asia’s efforts to scale up the response to HIV/AIDS.
Resource | Publications,
An estimated 1,700 children under the age of 15 are infected by HIV around the globe everyday. Many of these are young children, infected at birth by mothers who are unaware of their HIV status. The number continues to rise as more women are infected by partners who adopt high risk behaviours such as injecting drugs, buying sex, and having multiple sexual partners.
One recognizable pattern of HIV transmission starts with sudden increases among groups that practice high-risk behaviours, following which the epidemic spreads to the general population. This pattern has been seen in parts of East Asia and the Pacific. Sex workers, their clients and/or injecting drug users no longer form the bulk of new infections in countries such as Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, and parts of Viet Nam and China. The epidemic profile is shifting towards wives infected by their husbands who are often their only sexual partners.