Civil society must fight global crackdown

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Civil society must fight global crackdown

16 June 2016
Peter Sarosi

The exclusion of non-governmental representatives from the UN High-Level Meeting on AIDS is not an isolated incident, but part of a global crackdown on civil society. To fight back, we need to understand the crucial role of NGOs in policy development.

Imagine a conference on domestic violence excluding the representatives of women's organisations, or a youth conference without involving young people. This is exactly what happened at the UN high level meeting on AIDS. Those most affected by the epidemic - that is, sex workers, drug users, LGBT+ people etc. - were systematically blocked from entering the meeting by the unholy alliance of the Russian Empire and the Organisation of Islamic Countries. Excluded groups belong to the so called "key populations", a term often used in professional jargon to signify their importance in stopping the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. Governments made a committment last year to end the epidemic by 2030, an unachievable goal without listening to the voices of the people in need of help.

This is not an isolated incident. This year, the same governments tried to exclude civil society from the process leading to the UNGASS on drugs in April, so the outcome document was negotiated behind closed doors and adopted on the first day of the meeting, even before the discussion with civil society participation could have started. The rules of the meeting were constantly changed to make attendance more difficult for NGO representatives, who often had to wait hours in long lines to get into the building. During the round-table discussion, there was an unsuccessful attempt to block an Indonesian human rights advocate from speaking up against the death penalty.

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Thumbnail: hlm2016aids.unaids.org