18GA - FINAL RESOLUTION - 04 - FIGHTING HIV/AIDS
INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS
EIGHTEENTH WORLD CONGRESS
Miyazaki, 5 – 10 December 2004
FINAL RESOLUTION - FIGHTING HIV/AIDS
1. Congress expresses its deep concern at the massive human suffering caused by the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the failure to date to check and reverse its growth, due in large part to the lack of political will of governments. It commits the ICFTU to work for strong and effective action to prevent, control and ultimately eradicate HIV and AIDS. Complementary action, including anti-discriminatory measures, must be taken to expand prevention, voluntary confidential testing and counselling, assistance to children (especially HIV orphans) and care, support and treatment for those who are HIV positive, their families and the communities in which they live. Trade unions have a role to play in all fields in confronting this immense global public health catastrophe.
2. The crisis caused by HIV and AIDS continues to spiral out of control. Many of those at risk of infection cannot obtain even the most basic information about HIV and AIDS. The number of people with the HIV virus is now estimated to stand at more than 38 million people worldwide. In 2003 alone, the HIV/AIDS pandemic killed more than 3 million people and 5 million more became HIV positive.
3. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 28 million persons are HIV positive, and the average prevalence rate is 7.5% with rates of infection of up to 38% of the adult population in the south of the continent. However in other parts of the world including the Caribbean, the Newly Independent States (NIS) and much of Asia, the number of people with HIV is rising sharply and will reach levels comparable to Africa if urgent action is not taken now.
4. HIV/AIDS attacks the most productive segments of society and is reversing decades of development gains of whole societies. To the incalculable tragedy of death and bereavement must be added declining national incomes, life expectancy and the loss of productive capacity and skills.
5. The adverse impact of HIV/AIDS has too often been aggravated, not mitigated by international and national policy-making. Contrary to the goals in the UN Millennium Declaration, in many countries structural adjustment and privatisation policies have crippled public services, and especially the health infrastructure that provides the vital means for delivering the care and education so crucial to combating HIV/AIDS. With less than 5% of those who could benefit from anti-retroviral drugs currently able to obtain them, the international community has failed to act decisively and promptly to promote universal access to life-saving drugs to fight infection and prevent mother to child transmission. The international community must redouble efforts for the development of effective medicines to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and to find a cure.
6. Economic and social inequalities as well as deeply-rooted cultural attitudes and taboos often obstruct effective action against HIV/AIDS. Power imbalances, poverty, discrimination, stigmatisation and denial are major factors in its propagation. Women, young people, migrants, refugees, gays and lesbians are particularly vulnerable to discrimination. Congress welcomes the adoption of “women, girls and HIV/AIDS” as the theme for World AIDS Day 2004 and, recalling that 58% of people infected in 2004 were women, supports strengthening gender perspectives in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
7. There are many cases of discriminatory distribution of anti-retroviral drugs, such as companies that distribute them only to certain grades of staff, or governments that favour certain regions above others. Trade unions must work to ensure that there is justice in the distribution of life-saving drugs, with the ultimate goal of universal access.
8. Congress is aware of the varied forms of discrimination and victimisation of workers suffering from HIV and AIDS, including many cases of workers being discriminated against for social protection and retirement benefits due to their HIV status. Trade unions must ensure that national legislation prevents and penalises discrimination on the grounds of HIV status. Such legislation should also encourage employers to adopt policies for the management of HIV/AIDS in the workplace, in collaboration with trade unions. At the centre of such workplace policies should be measures to combat discrimination, to encourage awareness, and to provide treatment for workers across all occupations.
9. Congress is convinced that the workplace is a key battleground in the struggle against the pandemic and that all actors in the world of work share, in their respective capacities, a key responsibility as a result.
10. Congress therefore welcomes the Global Unions Campaign on HIV/AIDS launched on World Aids Day, 1 December 2003, and the work being carried out to promote and support trade union action. By mapping worldwide trade union efforts against the pandemic the ICFTU and Global Unions have deepened understanding of the role they can and must play in the future.
ICFTU Action Programme
11. Congress instructs the ICFTU and regional organisations, working together with Global Unions partners and affiliates, to:
a) raise HIV/AIDS to greater prominence on the trade union agenda worldwide and thus realise the potential of trade unions in the fight against HIV/AIDS;
b) undertake a world-wide effort to secure commitments from trade union leaders, their trade union organisations, members and allied organisations, together with national governments, in the fight against the global HIV/AIDS pandemic;
c) support trade union action against HIV/AIDS, with particular emphasis on collective bargaining along with the production and distribution of appropriate educational materials and promotion of the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS;
d) encourage unions to be active in national programmes against HIV/AIDS and to engage in advocacy efforts for more resources to fight the crisis, particularly through “world of work” projects;
e) encourage unions to include a component in their trade union education programmes on HIV/AIDS, employment and the role of trade unions as a source of information, awareness raising and action in the workplace;
f) encourage unions to promote adoption and/or review of legislation on anti-discrimination and social protection, as well as its implementation, as a necessary element in the fight against HIV/AIDS;
g) call for national legislation and policy to provide for effective workplace strategies and policies, jointly determined by trade unions and employers, to combat HIV/AIDS;
h) engage employers’ organisations in joint efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, in particular at the workplace and through determined follow-up of the ICFTU – International Organisation of Employers statement “Fighting HIV/AIDS Together – A Programme for Future Engagement”;
i) deepen partnerships with UNAIDS, World Health Organisation, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the ILO and other concerned international organisations, including facilitating trade union access to Global Fund financing through national Country Coordinating Mechanisms;
j) where appropriate, encourage the participation of affiliates in lobbying and campaigning with other non-governmental actors, so that the interests of workers affected by the illness are taken into account;
k) support access to freely available public health services;
l) advocate strengthening the public health sector by increasing finances for health services, upgrading policies on human resource management, and campaigning for health workers to receive fair wages, decent working conditions, proper training including education to address their fears of contracting HIV, and support for those who are HIV positive;
m) campaign in favour of universal access to high quality, cheap and affordable life saving drugs, including generic drugs, and in this regard, pressure governments to ensure that the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), and intellectual property provisions in regional and bilateral trade agreements, are implemented in a manner which facilitates rather than impedes such access;
n) encourage unions to address the gender dimension of HIV/AIDS, the special needs and rights of women, young people, migrants, refugees and gays, and the inequalities and discriminatory practices which render them particularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS;
o) provide all necessary support to concerned GUFs in dealing with sector-specific aspects of the fight against HIV/AIDS, including to the ICEM in its initiatives towards the pharmaceutical industry;
p) provide the Board with regular reports on progress.
________________
6 December 2004
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18GA - FINAL RESOLUTION - 04 - FIGHTING HIV/AIDS
EIGHTEENTH WORLD CONGRESS
Miyazaki, 5 – 10 December 2004
FINAL RESOLUTION - FIGHTING HIV/AIDS
1. Congress expresses its deep concern at the massive human suffering caused by the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the failure to date to check and reverse its growth, due in large part to the lack of political will of governments. It commits the ICFTU to work for strong and effective action to prevent, control and ultimately eradicate HIV and AIDS. Complementary action, including anti-discriminatory measures, must be taken to expand prevention, voluntary confidential testing and counselling, assistance to children (especially HIV orphans) and care, support and treatment for those who are HIV positive, their families and the communities in which they live. Trade unions have a role to play in all fields in confronting this immense global public health catastrophe.
2. The crisis caused by HIV and AIDS continues to spiral out of control. Many of those at risk of infection cannot obtain even the most basic information about HIV and AIDS. The number of people with the HIV virus is now estimated to stand at more than 38 million people worldwide. In 2003 alone, the HIV/AIDS pandemic killed more than 3 million people and 5 million more became HIV positive.
3. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 28 million persons are HIV positive, and the average prevalence rate is 7.5% with rates of infection of up to 38% of the adult population in the south of the continent. However in other parts of the world including the Caribbean, the Newly Independent States (NIS) and much of Asia, the number of people with HIV is rising sharply and will reach levels comparable to Africa if urgent action is not taken now.
4. HIV/AIDS attacks the most productive segments of society and is reversing decades of development gains of whole societies. To the incalculable tragedy of death and bereavement must be added declining national incomes, life expectancy and the loss of productive capacity and skills.
5. The adverse impact of HIV/AIDS has too often been aggravated, not mitigated by international and national policy-making. Contrary to the goals in the UN Millennium Declaration, in many countries structural adjustment and privatisation policies have crippled public services, and especially the health infrastructure that provides the vital means for delivering the care and education so crucial to combating HIV/AIDS. With less than 5% of those who could benefit from anti-retroviral drugs currently able to obtain them, the international community has failed to act decisively and promptly to promote universal access to life-saving drugs to fight infection and prevent mother to child transmission. The international community must redouble efforts for the development of effective medicines to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and to find a cure.
6. Economic and social inequalities as well as deeply-rooted cultural attitudes and taboos often obstruct effective action against HIV/AIDS. Power imbalances, poverty, discrimination, stigmatisation and denial are major factors in its propagation. Women, young people, migrants, refugees, gays and lesbians are particularly vulnerable to discrimination. Congress welcomes the adoption of “women, girls and HIV/AIDS” as the theme for World AIDS Day 2004 and, recalling that 58% of people infected in 2004 were women, supports strengthening gender perspectives in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
7. There are many cases of discriminatory distribution of anti-retroviral drugs, such as companies that distribute them only to certain grades of staff, or governments that favour certain regions above others. Trade unions must work to ensure that there is justice in the distribution of life-saving drugs, with the ultimate goal of universal access.
8. Congress is aware of the varied forms of discrimination and victimisation of workers suffering from HIV and AIDS, including many cases of workers being discriminated against for social protection and retirement benefits due to their HIV status. Trade unions must ensure that national legislation prevents and penalises discrimination on the grounds of HIV status. Such legislation should also encourage employers to adopt policies for the management of HIV/AIDS in the workplace, in collaboration with trade unions. At the centre of such workplace policies should be measures to combat discrimination, to encourage awareness, and to provide treatment for workers across all occupations.
9. Congress is convinced that the workplace is a key battleground in the struggle against the pandemic and that all actors in the world of work share, in their respective capacities, a key responsibility as a result.
10. Congress therefore welcomes the Global Unions Campaign on HIV/AIDS launched on World Aids Day, 1 December 2003, and the work being carried out to promote and support trade union action. By mapping worldwide trade union efforts against the pandemic the ICFTU and Global Unions have deepened understanding of the role they can and must play in the future.
ICFTU Action Programme
11. Congress instructs the ICFTU and regional organisations, working together with Global Unions partners and affiliates, to:
a) raise HIV/AIDS to greater prominence on the trade union agenda worldwide and thus realise the potential of trade unions in the fight against HIV/AIDS;
b) undertake a world-wide effort to secure commitments from trade union leaders, their trade union organisations, members and allied organisations, together with national governments, in the fight against the global HIV/AIDS pandemic;
c) support trade union action against HIV/AIDS, with particular emphasis on collective bargaining along with the production and distribution of appropriate educational materials and promotion of the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS;
d) encourage unions to be active in national programmes against HIV/AIDS and to engage in advocacy efforts for more resources to fight the crisis, particularly through “world of work” projects;
e) encourage unions to include a component in their trade union education programmes on HIV/AIDS, employment and the role of trade unions as a source of information, awareness raising and action in the workplace;
f) encourage unions to promote adoption and/or review of legislation on anti-discrimination and social protection, as well as its implementation, as a necessary element in the fight against HIV/AIDS;
g) call for national legislation and policy to provide for effective workplace strategies and policies, jointly determined by trade unions and employers, to combat HIV/AIDS;
h) engage employers’ organisations in joint efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, in particular at the workplace and through determined follow-up of the ICFTU – International Organisation of Employers statement “Fighting HIV/AIDS Together – A Programme for Future Engagement”;
i) deepen partnerships with UNAIDS, World Health Organisation, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the ILO and other concerned international organisations, including facilitating trade union access to Global Fund financing through national Country Coordinating Mechanisms;
j) where appropriate, encourage the participation of affiliates in lobbying and campaigning with other non-governmental actors, so that the interests of workers affected by the illness are taken into account;
k) support access to freely available public health services;
l) advocate strengthening the public health sector by increasing finances for health services, upgrading policies on human resource management, and campaigning for health workers to receive fair wages, decent working conditions, proper training including education to address their fears of contracting HIV, and support for those who are HIV positive;
m) campaign in favour of universal access to high quality, cheap and affordable life saving drugs, including generic drugs, and in this regard, pressure governments to ensure that the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), and intellectual property provisions in regional and bilateral trade agreements, are implemented in a manner which facilitates rather than impedes such access;
n) encourage unions to address the gender dimension of HIV/AIDS, the special needs and rights of women, young people, migrants, refugees and gays, and the inequalities and discriminatory practices which render them particularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS;
o) provide all necessary support to concerned GUFs in dealing with sector-specific aspects of the fight against HIV/AIDS, including to the ICEM in its initiatives towards the pharmaceutical industry;
p) provide the Board with regular reports on progress.
________________
6 December 2004
Download this file ("pdf"):
18GA - FINAL RESOLUTION - 04 - FIGHTING HIV/AIDS