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PRESS
RELEASES
Upon
receipt of news of the postponement of the 7th ICAAP, the network members of the
Seven Sisters issued separate announcements expressing their regret at the postponement
of the 7th ICAAP to the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of 7th ICAAP.
As background information, the Seven Sisters are members of the International
Advisory Committee (IAC) and also co-sponsor of the 7th ICAAP together with UNAIDS
and ASAP as sponsors of ICAAPs. These statements were issued in their capacity
IAC members.
AHRN regrets the cancellation of the 7th ICAAP. This
decision reflects a lack of concern for the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Asia-Pacific
that SARS is bound to complicate.
Passing off an opportunity this year
would impact community efforts that will have to wait for another two years, thus
also losing the opportunity to gain better grounds for regional advocacy and strategic
planning in preparation for the 2004 World AIDS Conference in Bangkok.
It is also an opportunity lost for drug users and other vulnerable groups
at this crucial time when most Asian governments still refuse to consider their
plight a public health rather than a security matter amidst increasing HIV rates
and new trends in drug use i.e., amphetamines that will only promote high
risk sex and drug use practices across all age groups, across all strata of societies.
If the LOC's decision is indeed final, an alternative should be publicised
at the soonest possible time, and ASAP's proposal and concerns for the next venue
and in the interim addressed in concrete terms.
All the best,
AHRN
Secretariat
Asia Pacific Rainbow is not convinced of the
reasons or of the apprehensions that have been exhibited by the LOC in justification
of a postponement. Therefore we do not subscribe to the view of the LOC and continue
to urge that the ICAAP should be held as scheduled without postponement.
We have also discussed the compromise that Professor Dennis Altman has suggested
and we feel that the said compromise is something we support ONLY if the LOC is
adamant about not reconsidering its unilateral vote to postpone the ICAAP. We
reassert that the ideal course of action in our opinion is to not postpone the
ICAAP.
WE hope that the dialogue that UNAIDS has offered to facilitate
between the ASAP and the LOC shall be fruitful and we shall not have to be saddled
with a postponement of the ICAAP for 2 years, a postponement that is for all intents
and purposes a cancellation of a very important international meet.
We
also hope that the LOC shall be swayed more by the ramifications and setbacks
to the region's HIV/AIDS prevention efforts that the lack of opportunity caused
by a postponement of ICAAP shall cause, than by extraneous considerations based
on unfounded fear, bad science, and prejudice.
Ultimately we hope that
there is a very successful ICAAP in Kobe in November 2003.
Regards and
best
Aditya Bondyopadhyay
Member IAC
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NEW - (Colombo, 19 January 2007) The AIDS Society of Asia and the Pacific (ASAP) and UNAIDS have met today in Colombo, Sri Lanka as members of the International Advisory Committee (IAC) to the 8 th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) which is scheduled to be held in Colombo between 19-23 August 2007. 
