Vienna Revisited
The World YWCA served on the Conference Coordinating Committee (CCC) of the XVII and the XVIII International AIDS Conference representing women, young people and faith-based organisations. As World YWCA SRHR and HIV Coordinator, Sophie Dilmitis represented the World YWCA on the CCC and played a key role in many aspects of AIDS 2008 and AIDS 2010 recently held in Vienna, Austria from July 18-23, 2010. World YWCA also organised a number of sessions at the conference, and coordinated a delegation of 24 women, mostly young and living with HIV who came from all corners of the globe.
Following an action and emotion-packed week in Vienna, Sophie shared her first impressions on the conference.
Sophie felt the conference was a “unique space which brought together science, community and leadership”, although it is sometimes challenging to unite three such different groups. She added that the conference was a fantastic learning experience, especially for first time delegates, “providing an unbeatable opportunity to expose people to ideas, concepts and diversity of people that they would otherwise never have an opportunity to engage with”.
A perfect example of this was in the words of one participant: “I was brought up in quite a conservative country and my society does not accept almost any of the key populations. During the session, I was looking forward to hear what “God” had to say about this. What I heard was something quite different than what I was used to, which confused me a lot, but made me think more and will continue to make me think”.
The programme included a wide array of interesting sessions on every theme and constituency engaged in the AIDS. Like many, Sophie’s only frustration was not having been able to attend all the many sessions she was interested in. The World YWCA delegation particularly enjoyed the sessions held in the Global Village, and more particularly the different networking zones. These were direct dialogues where participants could share experiences and concerns in a more informal way. The World YWCA sessions were mostly well attended and some delegated referred to the Young Women’s Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights “Our Bodies, Our Rights”, as their favourite session.
Of great concern at this conference and being urgently called for were issues around funding. This was extensively discussed at the conference and was an echo in almost every session. Universal Access must be achieved yet flat funding seems to be the present rule of thumb. The Global Fund urgently requires to be replenished. The best-case scenario would be to replenish the Global Fund with $20 billion yet currently it only has $13 billion. Also being targeted by activist and campaigners was the Austrian government, which still does not contribute to the Global Fund.
One recurrent and pertinent message was the concept of treatment as prevention. Abortion was also on the agenda of the conference for the very first time and it was good to have discussion around difficult and sometimes contentious issues. Sadly, on the other hand, there was still concern regarding sessions on faith, which was limited to only one session and where the divide still remains significant.
When asked whether women and girls were well represented at the conference, Sophie responded that she believed so, and there was no shortage of sessions on women, as well as bilateral sessions. However, it was too soon to measure whether they had a real impact.
A promising piece of new research shared at the conference was the good results of a microbicide trial. An antiretroviral medication (Tenofovir), used in the form of a microbicide gel, showed to be 39% effective in reducing a woman’s risk of becoming infected with HIV during sex and 51% effective in preventing genital herpes infections. Should further studies confirm these results, widespread use of this gel could contribute in preventing over half a million new HIV infections in South Africa alone over the next decade.
Women in Europe mainly acquire HIV by heterosexual contact and through drug use. Injecting drug use was the source of 57% of new HIV diagnoses in Eastern Europe in 2007. An estimated 3.7 million people currently inject drugs in the region, and roughly one in four are living with HIV. People who use drugs are seriously discriminated against and there is often a double stigma for those who have both HIV and Hepatitis C. A further challenge is for pregnant women who use drugs who are sometimes refused treatment and services because they use drugs.
Due to the above mentioned - the World YWCA was enthusiastic about The Vienna Declaration, which to date, collected over 14,900 signatures. The declaration is a statement seeking to improve community health and safety by calling for the incorporation of scientific evidence into illicit drug policies. The growing concern, especially in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, related to the number of cases of HIV as a direct consequence of infected needles makes this statement one of crucial importance.
19,300 people from 197 countries gathered in Vienna for one week, and this in itself is an enormous feat. Voices were heard, opinions, hopes and fears expressed, lessons learnt, issues addressed and promises made. The AIDS conference was an incredible platform of information and discussion both for an informed public and the public at large. Only the future will tell, however, what kind of impact the conference really had on the AIDS response.
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