Brazil declines US anti-AIDS funding
ISN SECURITY WATCH (05/06/05) - The head of Brazil?s anti-AIDS program, Pedro Chequer, sent a letter to the US government last week declining an offer of US$40 million in AIDS assistance, because the aid was conditional on condemning prostitution.
Prostitution is legal in Brazil and the Brazilian Health Ministry said the clause condemning prostitution had not been part of the original agreement on AIDS assistance, but was added later by the administration of US President George Bush.
Under Bush?s ambitious US$15 billion assistance package to help countries fight AIDS, HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria, US$48 million was earmarked for Brazil between 2003 and 2008.
Brazil has already received about US$8 million, but the addition of the prostitution clause was seen as meddling in the country?s internal affairs.
?This would be entirely in contradiction with Brazilian guidelines for a program that has been working very well for years,? The Guardian quoted Sonia Correa, an AIDS activist in Brazil and co-chair of the International Working Group on Sexuality and Social Policy, as saying.
?We are providing condoms, and doing a lot of prevention work with sex workers, and the rate of infection has stabilized and dropped since the 1980s,? she said.
Some 600,000 people in Brazil - out of a population of 183 million - have been infected with HIV, and the Brazilian government has been making progress in curbing the spread of AIDS by distributing millions of free condoms every year at street festivals and providing anti-AIDS drugs free to anyone who needs them.
Campaigners congratulated the Brazilian government for its stance, and voiced concerns that the declaration on prostitution could damage efforts to tackle AIDS among sex workers in many countries.
The US global AIDS coordinator, Randall Tobias, who is responsible for spending the US$15 billion in HIV-AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria assistance, told the BBC: ?Any organization receiving US global AIDS funding will have to agree to the policy.?
The US has a history of withholding money and aid to countries and organizations that condone family planning and abortion. The US religious right, which backs such policies, has been growing in influence under the Bush administration and pushing its agenda into foreign and domestic policies.
Brazil is one of the first countries to reject aid because of the Bush administration?s policy of linking foreign aid to policies favored by the religious right.
(By Ustina Markus in Washington, DC)
Prostitution is legal in Brazil and the Brazilian Health Ministry said the clause condemning prostitution had not been part of the original agreement on AIDS assistance, but was added later by the administration of US President George Bush.
Under Bush?s ambitious US$15 billion assistance package to help countries fight AIDS, HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria, US$48 million was earmarked for Brazil between 2003 and 2008.
Brazil has already received about US$8 million, but the addition of the prostitution clause was seen as meddling in the country?s internal affairs.
?This would be entirely in contradiction with Brazilian guidelines for a program that has been working very well for years,? The Guardian quoted Sonia Correa, an AIDS activist in Brazil and co-chair of the International Working Group on Sexuality and Social Policy, as saying.
?We are providing condoms, and doing a lot of prevention work with sex workers, and the rate of infection has stabilized and dropped since the 1980s,? she said.
Some 600,000 people in Brazil - out of a population of 183 million - have been infected with HIV, and the Brazilian government has been making progress in curbing the spread of AIDS by distributing millions of free condoms every year at street festivals and providing anti-AIDS drugs free to anyone who needs them.
Campaigners congratulated the Brazilian government for its stance, and voiced concerns that the declaration on prostitution could damage efforts to tackle AIDS among sex workers in many countries.
The US global AIDS coordinator, Randall Tobias, who is responsible for spending the US$15 billion in HIV-AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria assistance, told the BBC: ?Any organization receiving US global AIDS funding will have to agree to the policy.?
The US has a history of withholding money and aid to countries and organizations that condone family planning and abortion. The US religious right, which backs such policies, has been growing in influence under the Bush administration and pushing its agenda into foreign and domestic policies.
Brazil is one of the first countries to reject aid because of the Bush administration?s policy of linking foreign aid to policies favored by the religious right.
(By Ustina Markus in Washington, DC)
posted by Condom Depot at
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