Uproar over Govt AIDS ban

SEVERAL Namibian non-governmental organisations working in the field of HIV-AIDS have been shut out of this year’s UN General Assembly Special Session on AIDS because Government objected to their participation.

NGOs are being excluded despite Government signing a 2001 declaration of commitment on the disease. The UNGASS declaration, as it is known, stresses the importance of human rights in the context of HIV and the need for partnerships with civil society in an effective response to the disease.The objection to the NGOs’ accreditation to the UNGASS review meeting also flies in the face of Government’s commitment to human rights.As a result of the objection, organisations like Nanaso, the AIDS Law Unit, the Walvis Bay Multi-Purpose Centre and the AIDS and the Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA), which is based in Windhoek but represents 14 organisations from the SADC region, probably won’t be represented at the meeting expected to take place in New York at the end of May 2006.”It is rather embarrassing for the Namibian Government, I would say,” one AIDS rights campaigner said yesterday.An international campaign to have President Hifikepunye Pohamba reverse the decision will be launched today.Pohamba will be told that now is not the time for exclusion on the basis of political differences, but a time to expand partnerships across all institutions as well as with individuals tackling the pandemic – governments and civil society organisations, businesses and faith-based organisations, educators and healthcare workers, leaders of institutions and movements, and all people living with HIV.The letter will call on Pohamba to exercise his leadership in favour of partnerships over political difference – and to repeal the objection.Namibia’s objection is believed to have stood despite an attempt by top personnel at the UN offices in New York to get the Namibian mission to the UN to withdraw it.The Namibian mission is believed to have refused to do so.UNGASS originally granted accreditation to civil-society representatives on a “no-objection” basis.The only way in which Namibian civil society could have been excluded from accreditation was through an objection lodged by Government.Efforts to clarify the reasons for the objection have so far failed in Windhoek.However, The Namibian has established that the same happened in South Africa, where Pretoria also objected to the accreditation of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the AIDS Law Project (ALP).The TAC said they suspected that ARASA, which conducts its work regionally, was excluded because the ALP sits on its board.A letter has also been sent to South African President Thabo Mbeki to inform him that repealing the decision would ensure that the invaluable contributions and experience of civil society would help that country move closer to the common vision of a world without AIDS.The UNGASS declaration, as it is known, stresses the importance of human rights in the context of HIV and the need for partnerships with civil society in an effective response to the disease.The objection to the NGOs’ accreditation to the UNGASS review meeting also flies in the face of Government’s commitment to human rights.As a result of the objection, organisations like Nanaso, the AIDS Law Unit, the Walvis Bay Multi-Purpose Centre and the AIDS and the Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA), which is based in Windhoek but represents 14 organisations from the SADC region, probably won’t be represented at the meeting expected to take place in New York at the end of May 2006.”It is rather embarrassing for the Namibian Government, I would say,” one AIDS rights campaigner said yesterday. An international campaign to have President Hifikepunye Pohamba reverse the decision will be launched today.Pohamba will be told that now is not the time for exclusion on the basis of political differences, but a time to expand partnerships across all institutions as well as with individuals tackling the pandemic – governments and civil society organisations, businesses and faith-based organisations, educators and healthcare workers, leaders of institutions and movements, and all people living with HIV.The letter will call on Pohamba to exercise his leadership in favour of partnerships over political difference – and to repeal the objection.Namibia’s objection is believed to have stood despite an attempt by top personnel at the UN offices in New York to get the Namibian mission to the UN to withdraw it.The Namibian mission is believed to have refused to do so.UNGASS originally granted accreditation to civil-society representatives on a “no-objection” basis.The only way in which Namibian civil society could have been excluded from accreditation was through an objection lodged by Government.Efforts to clarify the reasons for the objection have so far failed in Windhoek.However, The Namibian has established that the same happened in South Africa, where Pretoria also objected to the accreditation of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the AIDS Law Project (ALP).The TAC said they suspected that ARASA, which conducts its work regionally, was excluded because the ALP sits on its board.A letter has also been sent to South African President Thabo Mbeki to inform him that repealing the decision would ensure that the invaluable contributions and experience of civil society would help that country move closer to the common vision of a world without AIDS.