Noticias
Noticias
Simon Cazal, director and co-founder of SOMOSGAY attends the 38th edition of the UNAIDS PCB meeting in Geneva, where delegates of the Board and members of civil society made several interventions in different agenda items.
We present the statement of Simon Cazal, who in his role of Delegate for the Latin America and the Caribbean, delivered the following words:
“Thank you, Chair.
The NGO Delegation is concerned by the discussion in the boardroom and also in the side-meetings.
We see plans of shifting the same amount of budget from one line to another, from one actor to another, and these plans are not going to solve the funding crisis. There are still elephants in the room and they're getting bigger minute by minute.
We have seen the same measures, nowadays called as "austerity measures", where countries shifting the same small amount of money from education to healthcare, from healthcare to housing, destroying our social nets, our communities.
We need to Fast Track everywhere and for anyone. We need to talk about priorities and stop talking about "prioritized countries". Let us remember our commitment to leave no one behind. This is not gonna happen without addressing the other elephants in the room.
We hear there is not enough money. We say: there is money but the money is spent wrongly.
Stop criminalizing and incarcerating our communities: gay men and other men who have sex with men, sex workers, trans people, drug users and people living with HIV. End the war on drugs, the wars against same-sex behaviors and same-sex relationships, the wars on our communities, and spend the money saved on law enforcement and incarceration on improving the health and quality of life of people. End the wars entirely and we shall have the money.
Hear what our communities say and look at the examples of good practice from all over the world that have successfully helped the HIV-response, where communities are partners and are at the core and the avant garde of the response.
As it happens with every human revolution in our history, real change only comes when we are bold, innovative and brave. Let us be brave and do what we need to do, to have our revolution and end suffering once and for all.
Aguyje peẽme guarã. Muchas gracias. Thank You.”
