Politics of the UN Declaration on AIDS Prof. Ismail Shariff

 

In an unprecedented cooperation, the Vatican has joined hands with the Muslim countries to oppose the United Nations from declaring Homosexuals, Prostitutes and Intravenous Drug Users to be especially vulnerable to the AIDS epidemic. These combined effort to oppose the UN declaration pits a philosophical alliance of such religiously conservative States as Iran, Syria, Egypt and the Vatican against Australia, Canada, Chile, the Euro Zone countries and other more secular governments.

In opposing the United Nations declaration Fayssal Mekdad head of the Syrian delegation to the United Nations, said that "we believe in one family - it is the family of a man, a women and their children". He further asserted that "what we are asking others is to respect such background". The Bush administration also expressed uneasiness about the declaration, for the United States argued that the U.N. document seems to confer special rights to Gays, Drug Users and the Prostitutes and hence is a concern. On the other hand, Australia, Canada, the Euro Zone countries and many of the Latin American countries consider identifying the same groups vital to ensure that the health programs reaches people who need them most. Their >joint stand, in otherwords amounts to saying that we do not ask  the Muslim Countries nor the Vatican to approve the behavior of Homosexuals, Drug Users, and the Prostitutes, but to be compassionate and make sure to include these groups in the overall strategy to deal with this epidemic.

         For their part most of the Muslim Nations in the Middle East bridle at the very idea of public document seeming to endorse practices they deem both culturally and religiously unacceptable. During the course of negotiations in finalizing the document Egypt proposed inserting a line referring to male homosexuality as "irresponsible sexual behavior", and deleting references to prostitutes and their patrons. Libya on the other hand suggested removing any mention of drug users and people with multiple sex partners, the Vatican seconding the later position. In so doing, Monsigner Anthony Frontiero, an attache at the Vatican's permanent U.N. observer mission said that "we understand that those are truly groups of people that are susceptible to the disease, but they are not vulnerable for the same reasons as children are, refugees are, or women are". He further went on to say that "there is a difference between vulnerability and susceptibility- you are vulnerable because of your condition and susceptible because of your behaviour".

         While sympathizing with the Vatican views, the Bush administration would prefer to identify risky behavior or situations, rather than groups- at least when it comes to drug users and gays. U.S. ambassador to the United Nations E. Michael Southwick express the same view in these words that " there are people who are vulnerable because of what they do and where they are ". In other words, the Bush administration tend to believe that identifying gays or drug users as groups could appear to confer on them rights and entitlements.

So in the final analysis, irrespective of the final version of the UN declaration on AIDS, this much is sure that due to religious and cultural dictations the most vulnerable groups like the Homosexuals, Intervenous Drug Users and the Prostitutes may end up being excluded in treating these groups. This position in itself is contentious and needs debate, discussion before devising and implementing any constructive policies or programs design to deal with this epedimic.