Facing Massive Epidemic, China Urged to Stop Harassing AIDS Workers
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WASHINGTON, D.C., Jun 15 (OneWorld) - Chinese authorities should stop harassing AIDS activists and squelching discussion of the killer pandemic or its efforts to stop the disease will fail, a leading human rights watchdog said Wednesday.
Human Rights Watch, in a new report, urged the government in Beijing to lift restrictions on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working to raise awareness, prevention, and treatment of AIDS and the virus, HIV, that causes the disease. ''Grassroots organizations have direct experience that could greatly strengthen the country's fight against AIDS,'' Sara Davis, China researcher for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. ''But in a number of regions, they face harassment, censorship and even beatings because the Chinese government is suspicious of any activity outside its direct control.'' China faces what could be one of the largest HIV/AIDS epidemics in the world, with Chinese and international experts predicting that more than 10 million Chinese may be infected with the human immune deficiency virus by 2010, the report said, citing U.N. projections. In 2004, the government reversed years of official denial, declared the fight against AIDS a top priority, and launched an ambitious nationwide treatment and care program, the report acknowledged. Earlier this week, Premier Wen Jiabao told U.N. officials that China was stepping up public education to improve people's awareness of how to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS. He said the central and provincial governments also were enhancing efforts to reduce social discrimination, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. However, Human Rights Watch said that based on interviews with Chinese AIDS activists, gay rights advocates, NGOs working with drug users, and Web site managers, it found that while senior officials have said they want to encourage China's emerging civil society, many AIDS activists face state harassment and bureaucratic restrictions. Activists conducting AIDS information workshops or working with people at high risk of HIV have been harassed or detained and pornography laws have been used to censor Web sites providing AIDS information to gay men and lesbians, said the report, ''Restrictions on AIDS Activists in China.'' Often, according to the report, local officials clamp down on public discussion for fear it will embarrass them or put a damper on foreign investment in the country's impoverished regions. The problems are most visible in Henan province, said Human Rights Watch. Thousands of people were infected with HIV as a result of a profit-driven blood-selling scheme run by provincial officials throughout the 1990s, yet none of the officials who profited from the scheme and ran the blood centers have been held accountable. Doctors and activists in Henan estimate that AIDS has orphaned some 100,000 children in that province alone, the report said. Over the past few years, Henan provincial and county officials have publicly promised medical aid and financial support to impoverished villages ravaged by the AIDS epidemic. ''But in practice Henan's response continues to be uneven,'' Human Rights Watch said. Residents and activists complained about the lack of adequate services and care, especially for children affected by AIDS, and about alleged corruption in the administration of internationally and nationally-funded aid programs. Instead of addressing these criticisms, Henan officials have detained activists who complained too loudly or who initiated grassroots efforts to fill the gaps left by the state. Thugs allegedly hired by local officials have beaten some activists, dozens of whom have been jailed. ''We continue to receive the greatest number of complaints from Henan, but that's because AIDS activists there are better organized and able to get their complaints before the national and international media,'' Davis said. ''We are concerned that in other, more repressive provinces, conditions may be similar or worse.'' Human Rights Watch said that activists also face problems in establishing their organizations in the first place. ''Around the country, activists who try to register new NGOs face a web of bureaucratic restrictions designed to keep government control over grassroots organizations. Many can only register as for-profit enterprises, making them ineligible for many sources of funding,'' the watchdog said. Additionally, the group said China's Internet restrictions have hampered the delivery of urgently needed AIDS information to high-risk groups such as men who have sex with men. Under a national anti-obscenity campaign run by the police, hundreds of Web sites have been shut down, including a number that provided vital AIDS information and counseling to lesbians and gay men. ''China's laws on pornography say that any Web site with homosexual content is automatically considered to be obscene,'' Davis said. ''That's not only discriminatory, in the context of the AIDS epidemic, it is self-destructive.'' Human Rights Watch said that after its report was printed, the organization met for the first time with officials at the Chinese Ministry of Health to discuss AIDS and human rights in China. Davis called the discussion ''frank and productive''. ''AIDS activists are at the forefront of China's emerging civil society,'' she added. ''The Chinese government should do all it can to support the work of groups who have helped thousands of people infected with HIV.'' |
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