Thirteen young men in Yangon have just been sentenced to two years in jail for alleged prostitution with men and contacting other men via the internet. They were initially in police custody for a week and were beaten at that time. They have been in Insein for the past eight months but the sentence was announced only this week. The thirteen were rounded up by police who were said to be trying to solve the murder of a gay Myanmar man over five years ago. They were initially held on suspicion but after they were cleared of any involvement in that death the prostitution charges appeared.
What action have the United Nations or nongovernmental organisations taken on their case? Financial support? Legal support? Publicising the case to the 'international community'?
The head of the UNAIDS regional support team reminds us in the following article that the UN is concerned with legal issues ... though there is an error in it ... only some of Malaysia's drug centres are now voluntary. Not all.
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Asia: Punitive laws on sex workers and drugs hamper progress
Tim Johnston
Financial Times
Published: November 30 2010 16:59 | Last updated: November 30 2010 16:59
The tide has turned in the fight against HIV in Asia, but the UN and activists are warning that it is going to become harder to maintain progress.
“As a minimum, most national Aids epidemics have been halted, stabilised and reversed,” says Steven Kraus, the UNAids regional director for Asia and the Pacific.
The number of Asians living with Aids has remained stable at some 4.9m for the past five years, and the number of new infections in countries as diverse as India, Nepal and Thailand has fallen by 25 per cent over the past nine years.
But Mr Kraus warns that preserving that momentum is becoming more challenging.
In many ways, such groups as UNAids are victims of their own success: they are starting to hit the law of diminishing returns. Progress so far has not been easy, but making further inroads against the epidemic is going to become ever harder.
The key vectors of the Asian epidemic are well known: commercial sex, intravenous drug use, and what the industry refers to as MSM – men who have sex with men.
It is MSM that is proving the most difficult segment to reach.
“We have underestimated the MSM issue,” says Mr Kraus. “We’ve done inadequate programming in this area.”
But that is starting to change.
Nung spent years as a transgender sex-worker on the streets of the Thai capital Bangkok. Now she works for Swing, an organisation that promotes education for other sex workers, particularly in the MSM market.
“We have to educate them about HIV, but we have to make it enjoyable,” she says, describing going into clubs and massage parlours to find out the date of the owner’s birthday before returning with gifts to turn a birthday party into an education session.
Nung says that Swing addresses not just the medical needs of sex workers – condoms, lubricants and regular health checks – but also issues of self-esteem. “It is a low-class occupation; everyone looks down on sex workers,” says Nung. She says lack of self-esteem makes it more difficult for prostitutes to resist pressure from clients who do not want to use a condom.
There has been significant progress in the broader heterosexual sex industry, particularly in places such as Thailand, where there was a very public education programme.
It even spawned its own restaurant, “Cabbages and Condoms”, which is popular with ordinary tourists, many of whom like to pose for a picture with the larger-than-life statue of a Santa Claus made of gaily coloured condoms.
Aids workers say projects with commercial sex workers are still vital, and more funding is needed, but the techniques are known and effective.
The anti-HIV message has also been reaching intravenous drug users, although the picture is more mixed. Among the success stories has been Malaysia.
“Malaysia had a draconian view of drug use, and has done a 180 degree turn. It used to have mandatory detention for drug users but now it has closed all the detention centres and reopened them as voluntary support centres. The authorities don’t see drug use as a law and order issue but as a personal and public health issue,” says Mr Kraus. The new approach has led to some startling improvements. In 2007, just 28 per cent of Malaysia’s injecting drug users said they had used sterile equipment: in 2009, that had risen to 83 per cent.
And there are some surprising outliers. Burma, not known for its progressive policies in other spheres, has supported an intervention programme of needle exchanges and clinics provided by international aid organisations. The UNAids 2010 global report shows 81 per cent of intravenous drug users using sterile equipment.
Aids workers say much of problem now lies in the legal framework. In some countries, laws drive sex workers and drug users so far underground that they become hard to reach. In others, unconnected legislation against trafficking and illegal migration are changing the dynamics of the sectors of society worst affected by Aids.
In its Global Report, UNAids estimates that 90 per cent of countries in Asia have laws that obstruct the rights of those living with HIV.
“Punitive laws that prevent us reaching key sectors of the population are a danger,” says Mr Kraus. “They do not build partnerships and they don’t create supportive environments, where community groups can access these key populations.”
These are significant problems, but they could be overcome by lobbying governments to change laws and modify the ways those that remain are implemented. The cultural challenges to controlling the MSM aspect of the HIV epidemic are much more difficult to solve.
“Culture matters,” says Mr Kraus. “How societies view same-sex relations affects our ability to promote good programming. Until the culture changes, it is always going to be a problem getting to MSM.”
The figures bear him out. In a 2007 survey, 88 per cent of Thai respondents who had anal sex with a male partner said they had used a condom: in Malaysia the number was 21 per cent.
Mr Kraus says that although almost all the governments in the region report that they are addressing the stigma attached to men who have sex with men, less than half have budgets. This, he says, gives a clearer indication of the real situation.
“If it doesn’t get budgeted, it doesn’t get addressed.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f00a8fc2-fc0c-11df-b675-00144feab49a.html#axzz16nFTIzxf
