Associated Press - Thursday, November 28, 2002
Oliver Teves, Associated Press Writer

In an action plan approved at the end of their four-day regional conference in Manila, delegates from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said they will ensure their AIDS awareness program is focused on "anti-stigmatization and nondiscrimination."

Asia-Pacific and the Middle East account for 20 percent of the 40 million people with HIV/AIDS worldwide. More than 1 million people in the region were infected last year by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, 17 percent more than the 2000 figure, the federation said.

Conference chairman Mario R. Nery said HIV/AIDS victims are mostly the poor and vulnerable people who need help from groups such as the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, but due to discrimination associated with the disease, the tendency is to for them to hide their illnesses.

"We cannot just sit by," Nery said. "The history of AIDS is that as long as you maintain it at a certain level it stays there. But once you hide it and you don't address it openly and aggressively, it's like a volcano. It will erupt."

Nery said the action plan also urges federation members to lobby their governments to enact laws to protect or help disaster victims in a region that is hit by 60 percent of the world's natural disasters yearly. "A law protecting disaster victims ought to be a national law so that it is not up to local governments to choose whether they help or not," he said.

Mohammed Al-Hadid, who headed a conference workshop on disaster management, said victims of armed conflicts are protected by international humanitarian law but there is no similar support for disaster victims.

"A clearer understanding of existing international disaster response law would provide that and could also regulate and facilitate the response to disasters by the international community," he said.

Noting that the region has the highest number of refugees and migrants, the delegates also said they will increase support, protection and assistance to internally displaced people and migrants while lobbying governments to accede to a U.N. convention to protect the rights of migrant workers and their families.

The action plan calls on them to "actively fight discrimination, racism and xenophobia" and work to include people affected by population movement and displacement in national decision-making.

The conference, which is held every four years, was attended by 37 Red Cross and Red Crescent groups from Asia-Pacific and 13 from the Middle East.

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