APN+ strongly condemns the EU’s deadly trade policies

10 February 2012, Bangkok – At the Annual General Meeting of the Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV (APN+), the APN+ Board strongly condemns the European Union’s continuing attacks on generic medicines through the EU-India FTA negotiations. At the EU-India Summit being held in New Delhi today, the EU is pressuring the Indian government to announce political “trade-offs” for the FTA negotiations.

“On the 3^rd of February we took empty ARV bottles to the European Commission’s office to show them what the result of the EU-India FTA would be,” said Mr Sudin Sherchan of the National Association of People Living with HIV in Nepal. Since 2007, the EU-India FTA negotiations have become increasingly controversial as leaked texts of the negotiations show that the EU is pushing India to adopt intellectual property protection standards far in excess of what is required under the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

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The Global Network of People living with HIV received news of the resignation of Prof. Michel Kazatchkine as Executive Director to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria with regret, but are keen to express our gratitude and respect for his leadership and commitment to the principles of the Global Fund over the past ten years.

Prof. Kazatchkine has played a pivotal role in the establishment and development of the Global Fund, having served on the Fund’s Transitional Working Group, Technical Review Panel and its Board before becoming Executive Director in 2007.

Under Prof. Kazatchkine’s leadership the Global Fund has lived up to its commitment of being a responsible and transparent multi-stakeholder funding agency based on a country ownership model, and a governance structure which promotes the active and meaningful participation of governments, the private sector, civil society, and most notably communities living with HIV, TB and Malaria.

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GNP+ has recently supported the Belarus PLHIV Community to be part of an evaluation team looking at work carried out the European Regional Network on AIDS and TB of the Red Cross Red Crescent (ERNA).

Although there was much appreciation for the outreach towards the most vulnerable in humanitarian contexts by individual Red Cross/Red Crescent National Societies, there was also a view that this was not always sufficiently nuanced - especially at a national level - to the needs of people living with HIV.

In addition, there was evidence to suggest that National Societies, and indeed the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, had failed to effectively communicate the challenges and opportunities presented by the unique position and structure of the RC.

The full evaluation report can be accessed here in  English 1.3 Mb and  Russian 1.8 Mb .

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