Photo: A T-shirt worn by a young person at the Pre-Conference.
UNICEF UK/2008/Alice Bottini-Hall
In photos: Ruth and Sophie at the AIDS 2008 conference.
Wandering through the Global Village on the first day was overwhelming, noisy, and vibrant, but we both remember seeing this small unassuming message on a postcard in an Oxfam International stall.
It occurs to us now that this statement has been at the core of every point screamed, sung or posed politely as a post-session question in every area of the AIDS conference we’ve been to so far.
During the first three days of our visit, we attended the Youth Pre-conference, where the message of ‘Rights, Respect, Responsibility’ blazed at us from the bright pink T-shirts worn by the organisers. The fact that the sessions around this youth campaign stood out to UCAN (the UNICEF Campaign Action Network) in discussions about the conference before we arrived, shows that we were already aware of the integral place human rights must hold in the HIV and AIDS response.
It was, however, obvious in an amazing session on sex education that we don’t always consider sexuality in these terms. The points offered by many of our Latin American peers came overwhelmingly from a human rights perspective, and were stressed by chants like ‘No hay libertad política si no hay libertad sexual’ (‘There’s no political liberty if there's no sexual liberty’) at the ‘1st International March Against Stigma, Discrimination and Homophobia’ which drew the pre-conference to a close.
A day earlier, at the conclusion of the 1st Meeting of Ministers of Education and Health to prevent HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean, Ministers of Education and Health signed an historic declaration pledging to provide comprehensive sex education as part of the school curriculum in Latin America and the Caribbean. Only reproductive biology is a statutory part of the UK curriculum.
Our thoughts on this timely difference have been shaped by our experiences here - we’ve found it empowering to talk about comprehensive sex education as a right, in a way that the jokey language we often use in the UK to get young people engaged isn’t always.
These thoughts stayed with us into the main conference, which, if nothing else, has revealed to us how easily we can forget that human rights are for everyone. Prejudices about injecting drug users and sex workers were (quietly) alive and kicking in us when we arrived. The shattering of these preconceptions is proof for us that this conference is vitally important, as it provides a platform for communities which are so often overlooked and ignored.
We came to Mexico to learn from young people’s participation in the HIV and AIDS response so that we can encourage best practice within UNICEF UK. However, our experiences so far have taught us so much more. HIV and AIDS is a virus attacking not only immune systems, but social, political and economic ones too. It magnifies some of the worst aspects of the human condition, but in that, is offering us the opportunity to right those wrongs.
The Conference
The AIDS2008 conference is a seriously packed week and a bit where 25,000 people working in every area of expertise around HIV and AIDS gather to share their work. It’s THE opportunity to hear about the latest research on this drastically important global issue, and a great way to get the attention of decision-makers worldwide.
Photo: Sophie and Ruth are attending this year’s International AIDS Conference in Mexico.
UNICEF UK/2008/Jessica Wright
Why did we go?
We are members of UNICEF’s youth groups, the Youth Advisers (Sophie), and the Youth Campaign Action Group (Ruth). Together we make up 30 young people working on UNICEF's HIV and AIDS campaign. We’ve two main projects at the moment, a peer education resource and a possible Winter Festival that will hopefully take place around World AIDS Day 2009. In Mexico we’ll be on a mission to learn from young people from all over the world involved in similar actions so that these projects can be even more amazingly incredible!
Video: Children in the spotlight at AIDS 2008.
Ruth and Sophie
Ruth
- 22
- Student
- Likes: When you chew the end off a pen and the biro bit pokes through
- Dislikes: When the biro bit gets lost
Sophie
- 16
- Student
- Likes: Turning the pillow onto the cold side
- Dislikes: Not having a pillow
Visit the official AIDS Conference website.