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Resource | Publications,
To increase the momentum and effectiveness of the HIV response in Asia and the Pacific, UNFPA,
UNAIDS and the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW) joined hands to organize, in collaboration with governments, UNAIDS cosponsors, national and local sex worker organizations, and civil society organizations, the first Asia and the Pacific Regional Consultation on HIV and Sex Work in October 2010 in Pattaya, Thailand.
This Regional Consultation, which was the result of an extensive and participatory process spanning over a year, brought together some 140 participants from eight countries in the region as well as selected national, regional and global resource persons that have experience or influence in the area of HIV and sex work. These resource persons included representatives from regional community networks, sex worker organizations, NGOs, researchers, government organizations, and United Nations (UN) agencies. Country teams comprising representatives from national AIDS authorities, Ministries of Health, Ministries of Justice or police, sex worker communities and the UN system participated from Cambodia, China, Fiji, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, and Thailand.
Resource | Publications,
The South Asian Roundtable was a joint initiative of SAARCLAW, the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), the World Bank, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS); under an overarching goal to promote a legal enabling environment and strengthen the legal response to HIV in South Asia.
The Roundtable was designed to build an informed and engaged group of legal professionals and advocates committed to leading the legal response to HIV in their home countries. In pursuance of this aim, the Roundtable created a forum for the examination and evaluation of legal and policy barriers to the HIV response in South Asia.
During the course of the Roundtable, the following law and policy issues were identified as key barriers to the HIV response: the criminalization of behaviors of key populations at higher risk of HIV exposure; law enforcement policy and practices; lack of sensitivity, knowledge and awareness by law and justice sector leaders and stakeholders; the gap between black letter law and practice; and the clear need for greater coordination and collaboration within the law and justice sector.
Resource | Publications,
This report, HIV in Asia and the Pacific: Getting to Zero, comes at a decisive point in the international and regional response to the HIV epidemic.
In June 2011, 192 Member States of the United Nations agreed to bold new targets and commitments that can make AIDS a thing of the past, including:
• reducing sexual transmission of HIV by 50%;
• halving HIV infection among people who inject drugs;
• eliminating new HIV infections among children;
• increasing in the number of people on lifesaving treatment to 15 million; and
• closing the US$ 6 billion global AIDS resource gap.
World leaders pledged to achieve these goals by 2015, which will move us closer towards the vision of Zero new HIV infections, Zero discrimination and Zero AIDS-related deaths.
'Getting to Zero' in Asia and the Pacific demands evidence-based responses that solidly focus on and involve key populations most at risk, are adequately resourced and grounded in human rights. Increasingly, countries are acting on this knowledge – and reaping the rewards. Tremendous progress has already been made, proving that the epidemic can be reversed, and that HIV treatment and care can be brought to those who need it.
Resource | Publications,
The report is intended to provide an evidence-base for: policy makers working in government, regional and multilateral organizations; parliamentarians; members of the judiciary; civil society organizations; donor agencies; and sex workers and their organisations engaged in advocacy to improve the legal and policy enabling environment for HIV responses. The first Asia and the Pacific Regional Consultation on HIV and Sex Work (2010) highlighted the need to document laws and enforcement practices so as to inform advocacy and programming to address the human rights of sex workers. The study focuses on 48 countries of the Asia Pacific region. The study method involves: review of legislation, cases, published research and grey literature; consultations with sex workers, technical experts and UN agencies; and analysis. This consultation draft relates to the Pacific region, Australian and New Zealand. Separate consultation reports have been prepared for the Asian regions.
The study focuses on laws and law enforcement practices affecting adults engaged in sex work. The study does not aim to map laws relating to children who are sexually exploited. Although the study considers the relevance of trafficking laws particularly as it affects adults voluntarily engaged in sex work, it does not map all trafficking legislation in detail.
Resource | Publications,
There is now overwhelming evidence that the epidemic among MSM (Men who have Sex with Men) is well established and increasing. While some actions are now being put in place on a regional and country basis to address prevention amongst MSM, there has been very little work done in regards to the issues for MSM who are already positive. To fulfil this gap, community-based organisations of positive people linked to the Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV (APN+) through a participatory research methodology, learned to design and implement a study to explore the issues affecting positive MSM in the region.
This study provides a timely critique on the lack of community-centred discussions surrounding sex, sexuality, and sexual identity. The ongoing global attention on quantifiable markers to health, universal access to treatment, medication adherence and condom use, while certainly important, only skim the surface of deeper quality of life for positive MSM; which necessarily depends on looking deeper into the meanings HIV has had on the lives and stories of those who have to live with it. Thus, it has been found that positive MSM in the Asia Pacific are left to mend their lives, their sexual identities, and relate anew post-HIV with the world outside, the best they can; in many cases with minimal social or institutional support. This gross injustice needs to be redressed if we are truly serious about being sensitive and responsive to the actual needs of communities affected by HIV. Perhaps only then will we have an enabling environment and politics that are yet to be.
Resource | Publications,
This is the second consolidated report on the achievements of the Regional Programme for East Asia and the Pacific. The focus remains squarely on articulating the contribution to development results, rather than simply providing an account of activities that have been carried out over the preceding 12 months.
East and South-East Asia is one of the most rapidly developing parts of the world. Global experience has shown us that positive and welcome developments, such as increased mobility of goods, services and money as well as the availability of information and communication technologies, simultaneously provide opportunities for transnational organized crime to expand. An uneven distribution of economic opportunities also produces significant domestic and international migration, which often disrupts communities and isolates vulnerable individuals. Rapid urbanization can also generate zones of anonymity and insecurity where criminality emerges and the law is challenged. This in turn adds impetus to both the demand for and supply of illicit drugs, for forced labour, for sex workers, for counterfeit products and for limited or protected natural resources (like timber, fish and wildlife).
For this reason, in addition to accounting for what we have achieved in 2010, we also attempt to outline the new and emerging threats and how we can best respond to them.
Resource | Publications,
Data is available for new diagnoses of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infections from all Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) except Papua New Guinea (PNG) for the year to December 2009 and to December 2008 for PNG, Australia and New Zealand. In 2008, there were 5,169 new HIV diagnoses reported in Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs), and diagnoses in PNG accounted for 5,084 or 98.4% of notifications. Excluding PNG, the annual number of new HIV diagnoses reported in PICTs was 85 cases in 2008 and 82 in 2009.
Resource | Publications,
While Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) have been collecting HIV and AIDS case data for many years, 2009 was the first year in which routine data on other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) were collected and reported. Eleven PICTs with access to laboratory testing facilities (either in country or by referral) reported on three STIs; chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis.
STIs are an important cause of morbidity in adults and also infants born to infected parents. While many chlamydia infections are asymptomatic, if left untreated, both chlamydia and gonorrhoea infection can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility. They may also cause conjunctivitis and pneumonia in newborns. Syphilis can cause miscarriage, stillbirth and congenital syphilis. The latter may cause irreversible damage to cardiovascular and nervous system of the newborn infected child. Amongst both men and women, HIV transmission is facilitated by the presence of any STI, including asymptomatic chlamydia.
Resource | Publications,
This paper is meant to provide a preview of law and policy on drug use and HIV in South and South East Asia, as it relates to interventions with people who use drugs. Besides cataloguing provisions relevant to people who use drugs and the availability of services for them, the paper flags concerns vis-à-vis health and rights of people using drugs that require further research and analysis. At the Consultation, the paper is expected to facilitate policy debate and advocacy with Parliamentarians. The country section summarizes specific legal and policy provisions that affect people using drugs in 15 Asian countries.
Based on the country findings, the paper then discusses broader implications and challenges for health, harm reduction and human rights in Asia.
Resource | Publications,
Since 2004, an ESCAP/ADB/UNDP partnership has regularly produced reports carefully tracking progress of the Asia and Pacific region towards the Goals. They have developed a consistent monitoring system for judging whether countries and subregions are on-track or off-track to meet the indicators for the 2015 Goals – presenting the results in a series of distinctive colour-coded ‘traffic-light’ charts. Each of the reports has focused on a particular theme, such as Millennium Development Goals (MDG) consistent national development policies or institutional reforms to make the development process fairer and more inclusive, or the impact of the food, fuel and financial crises on the likely achievement of the goals.
The report Paths to 2015 emphasises the inter-relationships between MDGs by identifying some overall priorities and opportunities that countries can consider for achieving all the goals. Then it focuses specifically on three areas: hunger and food security; health and basic services – areas where the Asia-Pacific region as a whole appears to be falling short; and on improvement of basic infrastructure which is often neglected but is critical if the region is to achieve the MDGs.