PHA-Exchange> Brazil spurns US terms for Aids help

[Sarah Shannon]

>Brazil spurns US terms for Aids help
>
>Sarah Boseley and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
>Wednesday May 4, 2005
>The Guardian
>
>Brazil yesterday became the first country to take a public stand against 
>the Bush administration's massive Aids programme which is seen by many as 
>seeking increasingly to press its anti-abortion, pro-abstinence sexual 
>agenda on poorer countries.
>
>Campaigners applauded Brazil's rejection of $40m for its Aids programmes 
>because it refuses to agree to a declaration condemning prostitution.
>
>The government and many Aids organisations believe such a declaration 
>would be a serious barrier to helping sex workers protect themselves and 
>their clients from infection.
>
>The demand from the US administration, heavily influenced by the religious 
>right, follows what is known as the "global gag" - a ban on US government 
>funds to any foreign-based organisation which has links to abortion. This 
>has resulted in the removal of millions of dollars of funding from family 
>planning clinics worldwide.
>
>Yesterday Pedro Chequer, the director of Brazil's HIV/Aids programme, said 
>the government had managed to resist US pressure during negotiations on 
>the Aids funding to focus on promoting abstinence and fidelity rather than 
>condoms - another ideological battle being
>waged by the religious right. But the US negotiators insisted that the 
>clause on prostitution had to stay.
>
>"I would like to confirm that Brazil has taken this decision in order to 
>preserve its autonomy on issues related to national policies on HIV/Aids 
>as well as ethical and human rights principles," he told the Guardian.
>
>Campaigners congratulated the Brazilian government for its stance, and 
>voiced concerns that the declaration on prostitution could damage efforts 
>to tackle Aids among sex workers in many countries.
>
>Jodi Jacobson of the Centre for Health and Gender Equity in the US said 
>that, unlike the global gag, the declaration on prostitution looked likely 
>to be imposed on US-based organisations as well as their subsidiaries 
>abroad. The office of Randall Tobias, the global Aids coordinator who is 
>responsi ble for spending the $15bn President Bush promised for the fight 
>against Aids, was working on the language to be adopted, she said.
>
>"Any organisation receiving US global Aids funding will have to agree to 
>the policy," she said. That would include charities as large as Care, Save 
>the Children and World Vision.
>
>"It is a hugely problematic policy from the standpoint of public health 
>alone. It goes against the entire grain of public health principles in not 
>judging the people you are trying to reach."
>
>But Sam Brownback, a leading Senate conservative, told the Wall Street 
>Journal: "Obviously Brazil has the right to act however it chooses in this 
>regard. We're talking about promotion of prostitution which the majority 
>of both the house and the Senate believe is harmful to women."
>
>Most US Aids funding goes directly to organisations working in the field 
>and much will be channelled through faith organisations that back the 
>no-abortion, pro-abstinence and anti-prostitution stance of the US 
>neo-conservatives.
>
>But the Brazilian government has strong HIV/Aids policies and insists that 
>all negotiations go through its own committee. It also has a strong 
>partnership between government and non-governmental organisations that 
>encouraged a united response to Washington.
>
>"This would be entirely in contradiction with Brazilian guidelines for a 
>programme that has been working very well for years. We are providing 
>condoms, and doing a lot of prevention work with sex workers, and the rate 
>of infection has stabilised and dropped since the 1980s," said Sonia 
>Correa, an Aids activist in Brazil and co-chair of the International 
>Working Group on Sexuality and Social Policy.
>
>"The US is doing the same in other countries - bullying, pushing and 
>forcing - but not every country has the possibility to say no."
>
>Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women's Health Coalition, 
>said: "The importance of the Brazilian government decision can not be 
>overstated."