Objective
The campaign aims to organise and mobilise a groundswell of civil society?s united voices in Cambodia and across the world during the week of 18-24 May to demand urgent commitment from the world leaders to:
- Strengthen legal system to promote human rights and protect women/children against violence.
- Increase quality of universal access to ARV, nutrition for PLHIV and health care services.
- Provide more resource for prevention, treatment, care and support programs for PLHIV with accountability and transparency in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
One week, One Voice campaign activities is organised by CACHA members in the local and national levels such as:
- Orientation on Universal Access for PLHIV.
- Mobilisation of PLHIV at community level to demand universal access through appropriate local, national and international levels response.
- Develop charter of demand on universal access through civil society consensus to be submitted to national and international actors, including UNGASS for fast response.
- Press conference at national level: Global AIDS Week of Action and Memorial Day campaigns 2008 ?Universal Access for All PLHIV in Cambodia.
Present status of Cambodian PLHIV, especially women and children Cambodian UNGASS Country Progress Report from January 2006-December 2007 of the National AIDS Authority sent to UNGASS on 31 January 2008, estimated that from 2006 till 2007, 39,680 died of AIDS (21,990 in 2006 and 17,690 in 2007) , and among 22,840 of them died of AIDS without Anti-retroviral (ARV).
Other two separate studies conducted by Cambodian Alliance for Combating HIV/AIDS (CACHA) and by Community of Cambodian Women Living with HIV/AIDS (CCW) showed that PLHIV, especially women and children face many acute challenges including discrimination, violation of rights, distant and limited health services, food insecurity, lack of shelter/farm land/job/vocational and agriculture technique skills, migration or indebtedness as a consequence of medical expenses (selling or mortgaging inheritance and property, such as house/farm land to pay for medication). Otherwise, low understanding of gender power relationships, limited access to health information on OI/ARV treatment literacy have led to drugs resistance and deaths. In addition, there is limited participation from PLHIV in development, HIV policy formulation, programme and policy implementation in response to AIDS epidemic.
Given the serious situation, CACHA proposes to organise the campaign to hold the world leaders accountable on their landmark commitment to fight AIDS made at the United National General Assembly Special Session on AIDS (UNGASS) in 2001. In 2005, world leaders made another historic promise on universal access, committing to: ?developing and implementing a package for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care with the aim of coming as close as possible to the goal of universal access to treatment by 2010 for all those who need it?.
The world leaders need to honour their promise to stop the needless deaths of women, men and children. Our governments must meet their national targets for universal access to treatment, prevention, care and support. Multinational drug companies must stop putting profits before people. Rich nations, including the G8, must back their warm words on AIDS with real funds.
CACHA sincerely hopes that the above appeal will make world leaders; governments, donor agencies, NGOs, private sectors and civil societies formulate more effective strategies in response to HIV/AIDS and poverty in Cambodia and throughout the world in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and target for universal access. CACHA especially very much hopes that national and international media will bring the appeal and concerns of Cambodian PLHIV to the Cambodian as well as world public. The concerns and appeal will be brought by representatives of Cambodian civil society (Dr. Kem Ley Coordinator from HIV/AIDS Coordinating Committee (HACC) and Dy Many on behalf of Community of Cambodian Women Living with HIV/AIDS (CCW) and CACHA) to UNGASS meetings, to be held in New York from 09-12 June 2008.
