From Sept 23-26,2006, an International Consultation on Male Sexual Health and HIV in Asia and The Pacific took place in Delhi under the title "Risks and Responsibilities", organized by the NAZ Foundation International (NFI) and UNAIDS. At the invitation of the Indian National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), the Consultation brought together men having sex with men (MSM) and trans-gender people (TG) from 33 countries, covering more than half of the world's population, ranging from Mongolia to Australia and from Afghanistan to Japan.

 

The Consultation was remarkable in many aspects. Where would one find a conference with at the Opening statements and words from Kofi Anan, Desmond Tutu, UNAIDS' General Director, the Secretary for Health in India, an HIV positive hijra and the mother of a gay man expressing her strong religious beliefs and her love for her son and his partner?  The Consultation took place in the very hotel where during the ICAAP conference in the early nineties MSM had tried in vain to be put on the program and then decided to have their own session outside of the conference venue.

 

MSM and Trans-gender people are now widely recognized in Asia and the Pacific as major high risk groups for HIV infection. The Consultation had plenary session dealing with biological, socio-cultural, legal, religious issues, research, the effectiveness of HIV interventions, universal access to prevention, care and treatment, and especially with the need for capacity building amongst community-based organizations of MSM and TG. A large part of the program therefore was devoted to group work in which MSM and TG from various countries discussed these issues faced by the groups in the particular countries and shared experiences and ideas how to handle them.

 

While the donor community was often praised for helping to advance the cause, it also received criticism because of donor-driven agendas, too short-term funding, lack of sustainability and sometimes enhancing corruption because of lack of strong accountability mechanisms.  

 

The Consultation Programme Overview is posted at www.risksandresponsibilities.org and in the coming days all presentations and a final declaration will be published on this site.

 

The World Bank's support for the Consultation was well recognized by the organizers and participants and it will give us opportunities to open up more in the future in order to fight the AIDS epidemic more effectively and to address gender related discrimination for these marginalized and often criminalized groups.

 

The last speaker of the Consultation at the closing session was a transsexual MP from New Zealand who told a truly riveting life story how she had been rejected by her family as a teenager and had landed in the sex industry to survive. She had slowly climbed up in the entertainment industry, had been nominated for a best actress award in a award winning TV series, then landed in politics and had become a major of a rural conservative town (winning 90% of the vote!) and was now a MP. A wonderful story of strong determination and self respect and a belief that one should never give up on society because one day society will respect you.