[Reader-list] URGENT LETTER AGAINST THE ANTI-PROSTITUTION PLEDGE

Sun Feb 3 21:13:47 IST 2008

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Manohar Elavarthi <manoharban at gmail.com>
Date: Feb 3, 2008 5:00 AM
Subject: [rainbowplanet] URGENT LETTER AGAINST THE ANTI-PROSTITUTION PLEDGE
To: rainbowplanet at yahoogroups.com

  Dear friends,

A strong group of advocates is working to strike the anti-prostitution
pledge from PEPFAR (www.pepfar.gov <http://www.perpfar.gov>). We need your
help from OUTSIDE the USA. The pledge requires organizations receiving U.S.
funding to sign a pledge "opposing prostitution." This has created problems
for effective programs to combat AIDS. Please sign on to this letter to US
Congress recommending that the pledge be removed.

To sign on, write to pepfarletter at taumail.com. If you would like to add a
sentence about the ways the pledge has affected your work, please send that
too!

The deadline to sign on is Tuesday, 5 February, at 5 pm GMT.

In solidarity,

Manohar

To Congress Re: PEPFAR
A Letter from the Field by
January 31, 2008
Dear Member of the US Congress:

We are members of non-governmental and community-based organizations from
throughout the developing world.  We are writing out of concern about the
so-called anti-prostitution pledge within the President's Emergency Plan for
AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the ways it affects our work.  The pledge requires
organizations receiving U.S. funding to sign a pledge "opposing
prostitution."  This policy has undermined
the work of many of our organizations and we must protest it.

PEPFAR demonstrates the US's commitment to address one of the world's most
urgent health problems, the need to prevent, treat, and care for people
infected with or affected by HIV and AIDS.  The United States
Congress has generously appropriated nearly $23 billion for this program,
yet the conditions attached to PEPFAR limit the success of this program and
in fact even prevent the people most in need from
accessing both the prevention services and anti-retroviral drugs the program
was established to provide.  In addition, this and other restrictions have
seriously diminished the effectiveness of the plan by denying funding purely
on ideological grounds to organizations and programs seeking to prevent the
greatest number of new infections possible among some of the most vulnerable
populations, specifically sex workers.

Many of us have turned down US funding because of these restrictions, which
if adopted would prevent us from reaching some of the people most vulnerable
to HIV/AIDS.  Those of us who in fact still receive USAID funding are forced
to restrict our activities and sometimes end our support for programs that
have proven successful in meeting the needs of the most vulnerable.  The
vagueness of both the law and policy implementing the pledge fosters
self-censorship and stymies programs aimed at building skills within
vulnerable populations and
saving the lives of those daily at risk of infection, violence,
discrimination and even death.

We cannot effectively do our work of HIV prevention with the pledge. This
restriction leads to violence against sex workers and other human rights
violations by further isolating sex workers from mainstream society.
Furthermore, this makes them prey to corrupt police and officials.

Our work gives us critical perspective on the gaps between U.S. funding
through PEPFAR and the reality on the ground.  For example:

·       Sex workers in Bangladesh include women who have no other
income-generating opportunities but whose programs have been cut due to the
anti-prostitution pledge. HIV/AIDS has reached epidemic proportions among
sex workers in some places. This pledge has been used as justification to
deprive sex workers and suspected sex workers of clinical and humanitarian
services.  Sixteen drop-in centers for sex workers in Bangladesh were closed
after their parent organization signed the pledge. For most of these women,
the drop-in centers were the only places they had to bathe, to use the
toilet, and to sleep.

·       In Thailand, male sex workers were prevented from accessing care at
a clinic because offering services to sex workers was seen as violating the
anti-prostitution pledge.

·       In Cambodia and Thailand, sex worker organizations have lost
long-term partnerships with other service providers who feared losing their
funding if they accepted sex workers at their facilities.

We strongly advocate striking the prostitution pledge from the President's
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. This well-intentioned clause has had
extremely detrimental effects upon thousands of women, their families, and
men throughout the developing world. It has undermined the effectiveness of
US aid efforts.  And it has
undermined our trust in US support for the basic human rights of all
persons, no matter their place in society.

Yours sincerely,

Manohar Elavarthi
Bangalore, India

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OISHIK SIRCAR

Scholar in Women's Rights
Faculty of Law, University of Toronto

60 Harbord Street
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