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Is U.S. AIDS Policy Undermining the Global Fight Against
the Disease?
Pills Profits Protest: A Chronicle of the Global AIDS Movement
A Debate on the Role of Pharmaceutical Companies and Access
to HIV Treatment in the Developing World
Colombia Re-Elects Bush Ally Alvaro Uribe
Is U.S. AIDS Policy Undermining the Global Fight
Against the Disease?
The United Nations General Assembly Special Session on AIDS
opened on Wednesday. Protesters gathered outside the UN building
in New York City to calling on world leaders to fulfill their
commitments to fighting AIDS and accused the Bush administration
of undermining the international drive against the disease
in its global AIDS policy. We speak with David Bryden of the
Global AIDS Alliance. [includes rush
transcript]
The United Nations General Assembly Special Session on AIDS
opened Wednesday in New York City. The meeting is one of the
biggest since the UN set out goals for tackling the virus
in 2001. In total 180 governments will be represented at the
three-day conference which is due to end with a new declaration
setting out changes in strategy for the global drive against
AIDS over the next nine years.
At the opening of the session, UN General Secretary Kofi
Annan said the vast majority of countries had fallen "distressingly"
short of meeting their targets and criticized the lack of
progress in combating HIV.
- Kofi Annan, UN General Secretary, speaking May 31, 2006.
Next week marks the 25th anniversary of the first documented
case of AIDS. On Tuesday, UNAIDS officials announced that
the total number of HIV cases worldwide has topped 38 million
but that the epidemic has begun to slow. India now has the
largest number of people infected with HIV, but the worst
hit region remains sub-Saharan Africa. Last year 4.1 million
people became infected with HIV. An estimated 2.8 million
people infected with HIV died last year.
Protesters gathered outside the UN building in New York yesterday
to demand that the leaders of rich countries and the most
affected countries listen to people most directly affected
by HIV and fulfill their commitments to fighting AIDS. The
protesters chained themselves in the lobby of the US mission
around a large poster that featured a blowup of a letter addressed
to Ambassador John Bolton. Police used bolt cutters to separate
them and made at least 21 arrests.
The AIDS activists have accused the Bush administration of
watering down a declaration to be debated at the conference
by removing treatment targets and references to prevention
measures - such as condoms and sterile injecting equipment
- in favor of abstinence.
Criticism also came from an unlikely source - President Bush's
former AIDS policy director. Scott Everts was Bush's lead
negotiator at the global conference on AIDS five years ago.
He told Reuters that the Bush administration has reached out
to militant Islamic governments, including some it classifies
as terrorist states, to try to ensure the 2006 declaration
backs abstinence and fidelity as crucial tools against AIDS.
Pills Profits Protest: A Chronicle of the Global
AIDS Movement
A excerpt of the documentary "Pills Profits Protest:
Chronicle of the Global AIDS Movement." The film examines
the international grassroots response to the AIDS crisis and
takes an in-depth look at the battle for access to HIV treatment
among the poorest and most marginalized communities around
the world. [includes rush
transcript]
We play an excerpt from the documentary "Pills Profits
Protest: Chronicle of the Global AIDS Movement." The
film examines the national and international grass roots response
to the AIDS crisis. It takes an in-depth look at the battle
for access to HIV treatment among the poorest and most marginalized
communities as they confront larger powers, including governments,
corporate bodies and the multinational drug industry.
Pills, Profits, Protest was produced and directed by Anne-christine
d"Adesky, Shanti Avirgan and Ann Rossetti. It premiered
last December on World AIDS Day on the Showtime cable network.
- Shanti Avirgan, co-producer and co-director of the Pills
Profits Protest.
A Debate on the Role of Pharmaceutical Companies
and Access to HIV Treatment in the Developing World
We look at the issue of H.I.V and AIDS by examining the
role of pharmaceutical companies and access to treatment.
Last week, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution
that would increase pressure on companies, governments and
the WHO to reform the system for producing and distributing
drugs in developing nations. [includes rush transcript]
We look at the issue of H.I.V and AIDS by examining the role
of pharmaceutical companies and access to treatment. Last
week, the World Health Assembly which is the decision making
body of the World Health Organization, met in Geneva and adopted
a resolution which would increase pressure on companies, governments
and the WHO to reform the system for producing and distributing
drugs in developing nations.
Health ministers at the meeting were responding to criticisms
from NGOs and developing countries that transnational pharmaceutical
companies focus on research and development on diseases prevalent
in affluent countries to the neglect of poor nations.
A report by the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights,
Innovation and Public Health released in advance of the Geneva
meeting, stated that the existing system of research and development
"has not yet produced the results hoped for, or even
expected for the people of developing countries." The
report goes on to say that drugs are priced too high and that
there is no incentive to research treatments for the developing
world where the need is great but profits are low."
We host a debate on the issue.
Colombia Re-Elects Bush Ally Alvaro Uribe
On Sunday, Colombia’s president Alvaro Uribe was re-elected
to a second term by winning 62 percent of the vote. For the
Bush administration Uribe’s victory marks a rare bright
moment in Latin America where a series of left-wing candidates
have won recent elections. We speak with journalist and author
Mario Murillo. [includes rush transcript]
We end today’s show looking at the recent elections
in Colombian. On Sunday, Colombia’s president Alvaro
Uribe was re-elected to a second term by winning 62 percent
of the vote.
For the Bush administration Uribe’s re-election marks
a rare bright moment in Latin America wwhere a series of left-wing
candidates have won recent elections in Venezuela, Bolivia,
Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay.
Uribe is seen as one of Bush’s only close allies in
the region. Since Uribe’s election in 2002 the United
States has poured over three billion dollars into Colombia
in the form of military and anti-drug aid. No Latin American
country has received more financial support. The U.S. support
has come even though Uribe has been accused of widespread
human rights abuses. Shortly before the election, a former
senior official at Colombia’s executive intelligence
agency, the DAS, revealed the agency provided right-wing paramilitary
groups with the names of union leaders and academics, many
of whom were subsequently threatened or killed. According
to the official, Rafael Garcia, the paramilitaries also helped
Uribe win an extra 300,000 fraudulent votes during the 2002
presidential elections.
- Mario Murillo, journalist and author of the book “Colombia
and the United States: War, Terrorism and Destablization.”
He teaches media and communications and is a producer at
Pacifica radio station WBAI in New York.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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