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Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2001 16:49:52 -0700
From: Charlotte Utting <[log in to unmask]>
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Subject: [wa-afr] FW: UPDATE: UNGASS - Youth Caucus Demands and Postition
Paper
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From: [log in to unmask]
Organization: Africa Action
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Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2001 15:38:39 -0400
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: UPDATE: UNGASS - Youth Caucus Demands and Postition Paper
ADNA Update: 010627
Message from: Africa Action
For contact information see also:
http://www.africapolicy.org
Dear ADNA members and Africa activists,
Following find the documents from the UNGASS Youth Caucus.
Feel free to share these with your contacts.
Regards,
Vicki Ferguson
ADNA Co-facilitator for Africa Action
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Aisha Satterwhite, 646-489-5415
YOUTH CAUCUS DEMANDS A RESPONSE FROM THE UN
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Youth From Around the Globe Urge Greater Commitment to
Leadership, Prevention, Treatment and Human Rights Issues
Wednesday, June 27, 2001 (New York City)- - On the last day of
the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS
in New York City, sixty-two young people representing 26 countries
presented a Youth Position Paper, calling on world leaders to
address the most critical youth-related issues left out of the
Declaration of Commitment. Members of the Youth Caucus, part of
Africa Action’s Youth Action Network, have included a list of highly
vulnerable populations in their document, unlike in the UN
Declaration. The failure to admit who is most at risk is one of the
greatest challenges to ending the pandemic.
The Declaration sets the agenda for the global response to
HIV/AIDS but fails to highlight the need to involve youth in the
decision-making processes at all levels, including governments, the
United Nations and international agencies, and non-governmental
organizations. Young people currently account for more than half
the HIV/AIDS cases and represent more than half the new infections
globally. There are 12 million orphans who have lost one or both
parents to AIDS, and the numbers are rising hourly.
“Since less than ten countries have official youth delegates, we felt
the position of young people was not clearly articulated. We have
come together to express our outrage at our exclusion from these
processes and we have drafted an official response,” said Thomas
Tchetmi, a youth representative and journalist from Cameroon.
The Youth Caucus has focused on issues of youth leadership and
empowerment; prevention, treatment and access to care; the
socioeconomic impact of HIV/AIDS; and human rights. According to
the Youth Position Paper, young people “must be involved in
initiating, designing, and implementing programs and strategies to
fight HIV/AIDS,” rather than having decisions made for them. The
socioeconomic impact of HIV/AIDS is crucial because young
people represent the future of economic stability. Every minute, five
people ages 15-24 contract HIV, said Marcela Howell, Director of
Public Policy at Advocates for Youth. “The United Nations may talk
about young people and HIV, but youth still do not have a voice that
reflects both the impact this epidemic has on their age group and
the role they must play in determining how to effectively reach their
generation.”
Young people need to be equal partners in the global response to
HIV/AIDS and the Youth Caucus has demanded that 50% of the
resources for the Global AIDS and Health Fund be allocated to
youth issues and that a significant proportion of the decision-making
power be accorded to young people. As a commitment to curbing
the spread of the pandemic, the Youth Caucus has launched a
global youth advocacy network. The Caucus is comprised of young
people from developing and developed countries, official country
delegations, and non-governmental organizations from around the
world and has been meeting daily since Sunday to foster discussion
and action. UNIFEM and UNICEF supported the attendance of
several young people from around the world. “We call on other
organizations to follow this example and to facilitate youth
participation in issues affecting them,” said Faye Burke, a youth
representative from Trinidad and Tobago.
Youth Position Paper on the United Nations General Assembly
Special Session on HIV/AIDS*
Preamble
We, the young women and men present at the United Nations
General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, reaffirm our
collective commitment to fighting the AIDS epidemic while pledging
solidarity with the struggles of all people affected by HIV/AIDS.
We recognize the efforts of young people worldwide, who have
been at the forefront of fighting the epidemic as peer educators,
caregivers and activists.
In particular, we refer to the Abuja Declaration; the African
Development Forum Consensus Document, including the ADF Youth
Statement; the Beijing Platform of Action; the International
Conference on Population and Development; and the World
Program of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond, and
pledge solidarity with young people in all regions of the world
engaged in the fight to prevent transmission, save lives and end
discrimination and injustice.
We call upon youth structures, governments and international
partners to join us in the following:
1. Recognizing that young women and men must occupy positions
of leadership in the global fight against AIDS.
2. Adopting a rights-based approach to HIV prevention, that affirms
young people’s rights to sexual and reproductive health information
and care and services, as an indispensable way to stop the spread
of AIDS.
3. Acknowledging that the rights of children and young people
orphaned by AIDS to education, shelter and a life free from
discrimination must be respected.
4. Affirming that care, support and treatment are a fundamental
right for all people living with HIV/AIDS.
5. Ensuring that the following groups of vulnerable young people
are directly targeted for prevention, care and support, and treatment
services: young women, people confined to prisons and institutions,
young people in refugee settings, homeless youth, unemployed
youth, out of school youth, young people from ethnic minorities
and/or stigmatized social groups, young people living with AIDS,
rural youth, young injecting drug users, young commercial sex
workers, young men who have sex with men and young people living
in extreme poverty.
6. Establishing a Youth Advisory Board is put in place by the
General Assembly, to monitor funds and programs of the Global
AIDS Health Fund, and integrate youth into all other decision-
making structures established by the Fund at national, regional, and
global levels.
In order to ensure the implementation of the aforementioned goals
we call upon youth to make the following commitments, and further
call upon civil society and governments to take the necessary
actions outlined below for ending the AIDS pandemic.
Leadership
Young people are and will remain at the front lines of combating the
global AIDS pandemic, however, we can and must do more. We
must be bold and assume leadership in breaking the conspiracy of
silence and shame that drives AIDS underground and stigmatizes
PLWHAs. Youth commitments
· We agree to assume leadership responsibilities in our
communities, in full partnership with families, schools, faith-based
groups, advocates, and grassroots organizations.
· We further agree to play a dual role of both direct service
provision and engaging in broader processes to advocate, lead,
inform, and mobilize communities to demand action on AIDS where
enough is not being done.
· We commit ourselves to ensuring that young people living with
HIV/AIDS assume key leadership positions in youth organizations
and are an integral component of our collective efforts to end the
epidemic.
· At the national level we pledge to hold governments accountable
for their commitments at global and regional level – words are no
longer enough.
· We will work with youth organizations globally to monitor
governments’ progress in ensuring that the rights of young
PLWHAs are respected, by using networks and calling to attention
the violation of young people’s human rights wherever they come
under attack.
Call to Civil Society and Government
· All relevant governments, international institutions, and non-
governmental organizations at all levels must accept youth
leadership, and provide resources to allow and empower youth to
meaningfully participate in decisions that affect us.
· We call on civil society to assist us in a monitoring role, by
providing technical support to our efforts and ensuring that young
people’s human rights are integrated into their rights agendas
globally.
Prevention
Young people (15 – 24) represent half of new HIV infections. This
is an unacceptable situation that can be reversed if young people
continue to fight the epidemic with greater political and economic
commitment from their governments. Young people have a right to
protect themselves against HIV, and our prevention efforts must use
this as a basis for all activities geared toward stopping the spread of
AIDS.
Youth commitments
· We will address the power relations between young women and
men as central to prevention, ensuring that all prevention programs
are gender sensitive and provide young women with the skills to
negotiate safer sex while teaching young men to respect the human
rights of girls and young women.
· We will obtain and provide full and complete sexual and
reproductive education, information and services to allow youth to
make informed decisions about sex.
· Our prevention efforts will confront the range of situations in
which young people may find themselves, in order to address all
vulnerable youth, including but not limited to: young women, people
confined to prisons and institutions, young people in refugee
settings, homeless youth, unemployed youth, out of school youth,
young people from ethnic minorities and/or stigmatized social
groups, young people living with AIDS, rural youth, young injecting
drug users, young commercial sex workers, young men who have
sex with men and young people living in extreme poverty;
· We will demand access to male and female condoms for all
young people who are sexually active, and will support and
encourage young people who choose to abstain from sex;
· We will take HIV/AIDS tests and encourage our peers to find out
their sero-status so that we can live healthy and productive lives.
Call to Civil Society and Government
· We call on civil society and governments to develop and
distribute sound female-controlled methods of prevention such as
microbicides and female condoms;
· We will work with governments and international agencies to
specifically target young people, especially those most vulnerable to
HIV/AIDS who include the groups named above;
· We will work in partnership with our communities, governments
and relevant international agencies to develop programs that create
economic opportunities for young people, particularly young
women, so that they are able to make more informed choices.
Orphans
Those orphaned by AIDS include both children and young people.
Eldest siblings are often left as heads of household, breadwinners
and caretakers for younger siblings. Young people orphaned by
AIDS are not just tragic victims who deserve pity. They are human
beings with rights, needs and an enormous capacity to survive
adverse circumstances. We are outraged that societies continue to
watch as more and more orphans turn to the streets and a life of sex
work to survive.
Youth commitments
· We dedicate ourselves to designing youth managed programs
that offer orphans safe spaces in which to play and grow.
· We will work to eliminate the stigma associated with being
orphaned by or living in a family affected by HIV/AIDS.
Call to Civil Society and Government
· We call upon our governments to ensure that orphans are
provided with the same basic human rights that should be afforded
to all children and young people;
· Children and young people in families affected by HIV/AIDS
must receive support for shelter, nutrition, health, and full education.
· We further recommend that orphans should not be denied
inheritance and urge that support be provided to mothers and/or
older women who are caring for families so as not to erode the
rights of women caretakers where they are responsible for the care
of the family.
· We strongly call upon governments to put in place mechanisms
to ensure that homeless children are included in all orphan
initiatives
Treatment, Support, and Care
HIV/AIDS treatment is a fundamental human right, and is
indispensable for effective prevention. Therefore care, treatment
and support to young PLWHAs must be a critical element of
comprehensive HIV/AIDS response.
Youth commitments
· We dedicate ourselves to work at community levels to develop
programs in which young people assist their peers and women, who
bear the brunt of caring for the sick and providing psycho-social
support, in ways that promote community acceptance of HIV/AIDS,
positive living, and the sharing of responsibility for the care and
treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS.
· We pledge solidarity to a global network of young people living
with HIV/AIDS to provide guidance to youth organizations regarding
program and policy frameworks for combating discrimination and
stigma and ensuring the respect of the human rights of YPLWHAs.
Call to Civil society and Government
· We demand that governments adopt and implement trade
agreements that will guarantee access to AIDS medicines.
· We call on the private sector and governments to significantly
scale up financing for infrastructure and treatment.
Socioeconomic Impact
In some regions, AIDS has deeply affected social and economic
infrastructure. In parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, teachers and health-
workers are contracting HIV at a rapid rate. Economies are unable
to compete with a smaller workforce and increasing health care
needs. AIDS represents a serious threat to socioeconomic
development. As a result, in resource poor settings, AIDS may also
represent a threat to peace and stability. The socioeconomic
impact of AIDS will only become more devastating unless definitive
action is taken. Youth commitments:
· We recognize that AIDS is a development crisis, and therefore
necessitates a response that addresses the underlying poverty and
inequality that fuels the epidemic.
Call to Civil Society and Government
· We call on governments and civil society to prioritize poverty
eradication programs that place young people at the center.
· We call for complete debt cancellation for all countries with high
HIV prevalence rates, in order to free resources which must be
effectively spent on social services such as health and education.
*This document was drafted by 64 youth participants coming from 25
countries representing the Youth Caucus of the UNGASS on
HIV/AIDS.
For more information, contact Aisha Satterwhite at Africa Action's
NY office or [log in to unmask]
***
This message from Africa Action is distributed through the
Advocacy Network for Africa (ADNA).
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