5000 People To March In Durban - 20 Million More Need HIV Treatment

Today, 20 million people living with HIV lack access lifesaving antiretroviral therapy. With 36.7 people living with HIV around the world, we are not even half way to making sure that everyone who needs treatment has access to it.

This year, the International AIDS Conference is returning to Durban, South Africa, 16 years after the historic conference of 2000. While there has been undeniable progress over these sixteen years, our struggle against AIDS is far from over. In recent years HIV has fallen off the international agenda. Everyone is talking about treatment for all, but where is the political will and financial commitment to make it a reality?

On Monday July 18, thousands of activists will take to the streets of Durban to demand that the 20 million people who need access to HIV treatment are not left behind. We will ask world leaders not to turn their backs on a disease that still kills more than 1 million people per year -- orders of magnitude more than Ebola or the Zika virus.

Five thousand people from more than 100 organisations across the world will take to the streets of Durban. With banners reading "AIDS still kills" & "Treatment for all now" -- they will demand that world leaders prioritize the AIDS response, which has been waning in recent years. Activists will present memorandums of demands to South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and US Ambassador-at-Large Deborah Birx as well as several others.

Our Demands:

1. All people living with HIV need access to quality, comprehensive HIV treatment now!

Today, of the 36.9 million people living with HIV, only 17 million have access to life-saving antiretroviral treatment. The START trial proved that all people living with HIV need immediate access to treatment for their own health. The HPTN052 trial showed us that when people are stable on ART they become non-infectious. The evidence is clear. We stand in support of the goal of reaching 30 million people on treatment globally by 2020, but this is not enough. All 20 million people, currently not on treatment, need to be offered access.

While everyone is talking about treatment for all - what is happening in reality? Where is the increased investment? Where are the new healthcare workers that we will need to sustain and grow these programmes? How can we provide quality care without many more healthcare workers? Where will we find money to buy the medicines? Where is the new investment into TB medicines? We cannot achieve access to quality treatment for all without the political will and financial commitments to make it a reality.

2. No healthcare without healthcare workers and a functional public healthcare system!

As with ebola, the AIDS response is being undermined by dysfunctional healthcare systems and shortages of healthcare workers. Too many countries are failing to invest appropriately in their healthcare systems. India, with the world's fastest growing population and 21% of the world's disease burden, allocates just 1.2% of its GDP into the country's health budget. China, a mere 3%. In South Africa, our healthcare system continues to be misused for political patronage -- and budget cuts are leading to what amounts to healthcare worker hiring freezes. We are not investing in people or in stronger healthcare systems. This is a crisis that hardly anyone is facing.

We cannot sustain 35 million people on HIV treatment without significant investment into stronger healthcare systems. We cannot respond to drug resistant TB without a large skilled workforce of healthcare professionals and serious investment in community healthcare workers, the foundation of our healthcare system. It is time for governments to increase the amount of revenue allocated to the health sector, and for donors to scale up their investments in strengthening health care systems.

3. No more patents on medicines!

Safeguarding access to medicines is fundamental to achieving the right to health. A right enshrined in the Constitutions of nearly 50 countries -- including South Africa. A right mandated by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But as we speak, a right that is not being realised. For years, activists globally fought against the unrelenting pressure of the pharmaceutical industry to ensure access to ARVs. While we won some important victories, when it comes to intellectual property the pharmaceutical companies are winning the war.

Evidence shows how intellectual property prevents people most in need from accessing vital medicines. New AIDS medicines, tuberculosis medicines, and a number of cancer, hepatitis C and mental health medicines, remain priced out of reach. This is as true in rich countries as it is in poor ones. We are also faced with a research and development system that fails to develop many of the medicines we desperately need. The entire world invested less than $700 million USD in TB research last year, while TB is the top infectious disease killer on the planet. This system is unacceptable. How many more people must die before we admit the system is broken?

We stand in solidarity with all people who cannot access the medicines they need. We will not allow the inhumanity of denying people medicines to continue. It is time to make medicines for people, not for profit.

4. No more discrimination and criminalization of key populations!

In many countries around the world marginalized groups continue to be at the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic. Key populations, including gay men and other men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender women, people who inject drugs, migrants, and prisoners, are facing massive unmet need for quality HIV prevention and treatment services. These groups have been systematically silenced and/or attacked because of bigotry, hatred, and health systems that discriminate against them.

Governments must prioritize eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and to ensure that national HIV programs include quality, evidence-based prevention, treatment and care for gay men and other men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender women, people who inject drugs, migrants, and prisoners. Donors and other stakeholders need to prioritize funding the grassroots advocacy efforts that are needed to confront discrimination.

Ending the AIDS pandemic is not possible without addressing the forces of marginalization and criminalization that continue to fuel the epidemic around the world. We will not accept continued rhetoric on ending AIDS, that is not accompanied by action to ensure an end to discrimination and human rights for all.

5. Increase funding for the global AIDS response!

Funding for HIV programs from donor governments has been flat-lined in recent years. In almost every low and middle-income country, gaps in funding are undermining the HIV response and treatment and prevention services are being rationed. While some low- and middle-income governments have stepped up their investments in the response, all governments need to and can invest more.

Donor funding for the response in middle-income countries, in particular, is also under threat. This donor withdrawal is having devastating effects in terms of services for key populations, for whom donors play a critical role in funding the response, where national governments themselves drive criminalization and stigmatization. This is happening at the exact time when it is necessary to increase investments in order to curb the epidemic.

We refuse to accept lip-service from world leaders on 'ending AIDS' that is not accompanied by the financial commitments necessary to make this a reality. It is time for donor and domestic governments to put their money where their mouths are.

This is our lives. It is the lives of our brothers, sisters, and comrades that are at stake. In July 2016 at the International AIDS Conference, activists from South Africa, and around the world, will fill the streets of Durban. We are not begging, but demanding a new era in the AIDS response.

Join the march on Monday, July 18 at 11:30 a.m. at King DiniZulu Park, then March from 12-2 p.m. at Dr AB Xuma Street, Walnut Road or Stalwart Simelane Street. End between 2-3 p.m. with memorandums & speeches, Opposite Hilton, in between Samora Machel Street, Walnut Road and Bram Fischer Road.