Author: Max Malyshev, editor of the independent newspaper reporting on drug related issues Shlyapa and Bayan, Andrey Rylkov Foundation
Very soon, on 23 – 24 March 2016, Moscow will host the 5th Eastern Europe and Central Asia AIDS Conference. This is an important event for the region, because despite the significant financial investments, Russia cannot turn the tide of the HIV epidemic. Eastern Europe and Central Asia is the only region in the world where the HIV epidemic continues to grow, primarily in Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The share of only two countries – Russia and Ukraine – accounts for more than 85% of all people living with HIV in the region. The main community bearing the burden of the epidemic is people who use drugs.
Despite this, Russia still has not yet introduced evidence based HIV prevention approaches such as harm reduction and substitution therapy. Up to the present day, the community of people who use drugs is subjected to repressions and has no access to effective prevention. The same applies to the most vulnerable communities such as the MSM / LGBT and sex workers.
Boycott: pros and cons
This event takes place in Moscow every two years and during the last two conferences, the calls to boycott it were voiced increasingly. Two years ago, it was a couple of non-profit organizations, such as the Eurasian Network of People who Use Drugs and the Andrey Rylkov Foundation and dozens of activists from Russia and other countries. Today the situation has changed, and more and more activists from different countries decide to boycott the conference. Moreover, this year several non-profit organizations and international networks signed an open letter addressed to international participants of the 5th International Conference on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia calling on them to refrain from participating in the conference. The main arguments for boycotting the conference are as follows:
- The Russian government’s opposition to effective evidence-based HIV prevention approaches and substituting them with repressions, criminalization and discrimination against communities vulnerable to the epidemic;
- To the very least, it is strange to organize this conference in a country that requires immediate deportation of HIV-positive foreigners
- A series of homophobic laws, which resulted in an atmosphere of hatred, physical and moral violence against representatives of the LGBT community
- Many activists from other countries in the region who receive treatment in methadone and buprenorphine substitution programs will not be able to attend the conference
- For several years, Russian officials have been fighting with non-profit organizations that carry out evidence based HIV prevention. Access to funding is blocked for these organizations, and they are labeled as “foreign agents”.
However, a number of activists and non-profit organizations have a different view and intend to participate in this event. The main arguments are as follows:
- This conference is one of few remaining platforms for discussion and exchange of experience between the authorities, AIDS centers, NGO activists and others, and it certainly should be used;
- Despite the fact that the HIV epidemic situation worsens, the government still needs to talk about this and present their vision on how this problem can be solved;
- First of all this is a scientific conference and there will be a lot of relevant information on HIV/AIDS;
- People living with HIV increasingly face problems and these problems must be solved. This will not be achieved through boycott;
- In order to make it more difficult for officials to talk about the alleged Russian leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
For me, a person who has been working in the field of harm reduction for more than 10 years, a manager in the HIV prevention project and an activist with the Eurasian Network of People who Use Drugs, this was an important choice whether or not to participate in the conference. I made my choice in favor of a boycott two years ago at the last conference. When I do something, it is important for me to understand why I do this. As regards participation in this conference, I have absolutely no understanding of why I should participate. To prove the obvious to the officials that harm reduction approaches, substitution therapy and humane drug policy will benefit my country? In recent years, I have tried to make sense of it all and I understand that this is meaningless. There is no question that the officials just need to talk and be persuaded. This was done for many years and continues today, but all in vain and it is foolish to hope that this will work suddenly after the 1001 attempt. Those invited to prove this at the conference simply are not able to hear the voice of my community and the experts. For the most part, these people are either incompetent or they are moral criminals who care only about their rank. Their inaction, lies and moralizing condemns to death, thousands of people.
Now let’s listen to the experts who have opposite opinions on this matter – Anya Sarang, President of the Foundation to promote the protection of the health and social justice, named after Andrey Rylkov and Gregory Vergus, ITPCru
Anya Sarang:
For me, participation in this conference is not a question of whether this is “useful or useless,” because it is useless to work with this government. I’ve been convinced in this for a long time. For me it’s more a question of dignity. That is, you are ready to travel somewhere, walk in some hall, eat some dinner, drink Coke or whatever … knowing that the money, simply put, is ripped from possible HIV prevention; yet they will report that the money was invested in HIV prevention. That is, quite simply, to put it bluntly, the money is stolen from people. And not only will they report that the money was spent, they will also report at the various United Nations General Assembly meetings and so on, as they did last year, that the Russian government is perfectly engaged in HIV prevention. Are you willing to be a kind of puppet in this production? To show how great the Russian government invested in this conference? I am not ready. For me it’s just a matter of my inner dignity … Well, yes, human and professional dignity.
What to do in this situation? Do nothing, keep working the way we worked. Why do we always have to rely on the fact that some thieves launder their money? We have nothing to do with this at all. I do not get any money from this government, I only pay them through taxes. I pay and they continue to squander and steal this money. We have applied for the presidential grants for many years. We can keep applying as much as we want, but we will not get the money because we are engaged in effective prevention. And effective prevention is not what interests this government. They are interested in what they are doing. Well, we still do our job … As for the meeting, yes, I would very much like to … Sometimes I feel that I want to see everyone, to communicate, to know who has a better experience. May be we need to organize our own autonomous and more focused meetings. Again, if UNAIDS would not participate in this orgy, if they had used their resources to organize a real conference with the participation of affected communities and professionals, then we would have more opportunities, but it turned out that UNAIDS decided to support the Russian government in this scheme. It turns out that we now have no other platforms and there is no alternative. Well then we need to create our own alternate platforms, and that’s it.
Gregory Vergus:
Why do I feel that I have to go to the conference? It is not the question whether I should or should not. I just have to go there. We must use all opportunities. I see no pros in boycotting the conference. No pros at all. The caravan will keep moving, I simply know it. But if I do not go there, I will miss a lot of chances. Past EECA Conferences were very efficient for us in terms of reducing the price of medications, we discussed many important issues, we had many important meetings with officials; and so far I have seen the real results of the EECA Conferences. And we live with this. This is first.
Second, I saw once that a discussion on substitution treatment was organized at the EECA Conference. It was facilitated poorly. It was conducted from the standpoint of addiction, first the topic was associated with Afghanistan and then the issues of terrorism were discussed, and so on. In my opinion, this subject must be raised at the conference, and the higher the quality of the discussion, the better. We should not descend to the level that ” all of them there are bad and we are good, the whole world provides treatment and we do not provide treatment.” This is not an argument for our government today. It should be very methodical nagging, we need to methodically clash the progressive forces in our government (and they exist, I know this) with the Federal Drug Control Service.
Furthermore, we have no other conference, and despite what that letter says, there are no other such events where you can talk to the medical specialists and NGO representatives and sometimes with government officials from all over the region. Well, that’s just not there. We do not have other conferences and unfortunately other conferences are not expected in the near future. By the way, if we remember the past EECAC, there were several speeches that made our officials blush. These speeches were about the rapid growth of the epidemic, how this affects drug users, and the unclear situation with LGBT. Therefore, the argument that Russia organizes its own HIV festival just to show-off, is somewhat farfetched.
I strongly dislike the views of both camps – those boycotting and not boycotting the conference, especially when the conversation turns personal. They former suggest that those participating in the conference are collaborators and traitors to the idea of prevention and treatment for all. The latter begin to pump the idea that those who do not participate had nothing to offer anyway and they only raise their prestige calling all around. This confrontation is absolutely unnecessary and they all start straining themselves on this matter. Let everyone decide for him or herself, but let’s not forget that we still have a long row in the same boat.
Source: www.harm-reduction.org