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."
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