(ATN) GAAN -- New Push for International Activism

(ATN) GAAN -- New Push for International Activism

AIDS TREATMENT NEWS Issue #187, November 19, 1993
John S. James

In the U.S. and some other countries, AIDS activists have influenced official policies, to the great benefit of people with AIDS. But there have been little international grassroots advocacy -- coordinated efforts by activists in different countries to work with the foreign-policy arms of their own governments, and/or directly with international organizations such as the Global Program on AIDS or the International Monetary Fund.

This absence is likely to cost millions of lives. For example, at the closing session of the last International Conference on AIDS, M. H. Merson, M.D., Director of the Global Programme on AIDS, presented research results showing that a comprehensive prevention program for the developing world would cut in half the number of new HIV infections between now and the year 2000, saving $90 billion in costs by the turn of the century, and having even greater impact in lives saved and financial cost in the next century. The cost of the program would be $1.5 to $2.9 billion dollars a year (1990 dollars) -- about the same cost as buying one can of soft drink per year for every person in the world.

Yet this program is unlikely to happen if there is no public advocacy for it. In addition, international advocacy will be important for protecting human rights of persons with HIV in all countries, and for helping to coordinate treatment and vaccine research and information access.

To develop resources for international advocacy, Paul Boneberg, founder and for nine years executive director of Mobilization Against AIDS, has left that organization to found the Global AIDS Advocacy Network (GAAN). This writer is a member of its founding board.

Now is an especially critical time, because AIDS efforts at the United Nations, and in the U.S. Agency for International Development, are undergoing major restructuring and reform. Just one indication of the need for advocacy is the fact that neither the U.S. nor the U.N. have included their human- rights offices in these restructuring efforts.

GAAN's mission is to facilitate advocacy on global AIDS programs. It will provide policy analysis to concerned organizations, develop an advocacy and policy network, and facilitate coordination between advocacy groups. Current projects include researching the ongoing but unpublicized reforms of AIDS programs at the United Nations, coordinating advocacy efforts at major events (including the Stonewall march at the United Nations in June 1994), and developing a quarterly newsletter on global AIDS policy issues. GAAN can help organizations and individuals who are already involved in national AIDS policy or activism, who also want to have some input into shaping U.S. (or other countries') AIDS policy internationally.

GAAN will also coordinate the annual International Candlelight Memorial events outside the United States. Mobilization Against AIDS, which has organized the event for ten years, will continue to coordinate the sites within the U.S. The next memorial is scheduled for May 24, 1993. Last year 240 cities in 45 countries participated.

For more information, contact GAAN at: phone, 415-488-1453; fax, 415-488-1942; Internet, globalaids@aol.com; or mail, P.O. Box 376, Lagunitas, California 94938.

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