Do you have a communicable disease – Toronto 2006

Are we as the international community of advocates, activists and
especially the conference co-sponsors becoming blasé in hosting these
International AIDS Conferences?

I get a ting of excitement when I remember so clearly the passion and
activism that was involved in moving the International AIDS
Conference from the USA to Amsterdam in 1992…the reasons were clear, the passion
and activism was intense and it produced results…the Amsterdam
conference was held with a sense of achievement, not only because the
Dutch organizers managed to pull it off, but we the international
community had demonstrated our power!

Let me also say from the outset that this is certainly NOT the most
important battle that we have to fight or address in our struggle
against HIV/AIDS, but it does beg the question of how serious a
violation has to be, to make people become passionate, angry, make
their voices heard and make a difference.

In July 2000, Canada changed its immigration policies to
inhibit/restrict/control/coordinate (whatever the word is) the
immigration of people living with HIV if they were/are found to be
considered "excessive burden" on the health care system(I am not
quite sure of the exact wording, and am sure that the Canadian HIV/AIDS
legal network can assist in this matter).

However, Canada now also has that dreaded question on their ordinary
tourist visa application forms (same as the USA) "Do you have a
communicable disease?", and then a long list of other questions. If
you answer "yes" to any of these questions then you have to provide the
details.

I had the experience of having to travel to Canada at the end of
November (2004) to attend a meeting with ICASO and UNAIDS. I answered
yes to this question (partly because they have my history on file,
and partly because I do not want to be charged and accused of applying
for a visa fraudulently, as was the case when I answered no to the question
with a US visa application – as was the international advocacy
strategy in the late 80's and early 90'2.)

The Embassy then contacted me and asked me to provide a letter from
my doctor that stated what my CD4 count was, my viral load and my
general state of health. This was then going to be sent off to the Canadian
High Commissioner's Medical Officer for Africa (who is situated in Kenya),
for a final decision. I eventually got my tourist visa in time, in
part also due to the internal work of ICASO colleagues in Toronto with the
various ministries), but this for now is a side issue.

There are a number of meetings that happen prior to the conference
actually taking place, and most of the representatives of the
cosponsors of the international AIDS Conference (ICASO, ICW, GNP+, UNAIDS, IAS)
are "fortunate enough" that they are able to travel with passports that
do not require them having to apply for visas, and I guess the case is
also somewhat different for colleagues traveling from the US and some
European countries. For participants traveling from "developing
countries" the case is somewhat different, and I do think that it is
important that not only raise a number of questions, but that we also
attempt to discuss, debate and answer them?

1.What is going to happen to the information on the visa
application forms? Will it be kept in a central database, and the
person will always be identified as being HIV positive, and therefore having
potential repercussions for future visa applications. The pressure to
provide quick and politically correct answers will no longer be there
once the conference has gone.

2. What happens to people who are HIV positive, and decide to
answer NO to this question?

3. How do we guarantee (almost impossible) the confidentiality
of people applying for visas, when in some consulates or embassies
around the world there are local people employed in the visa section?

4. What is going to happen to people who do answer yes to the
question and then have to provide blood tests results and state of
health letters? What is this going to do to visa application times?
(This may not be standard policy – as was explained to me in the
situation described above, but how do we guarantee that all Embassies
and Consulates around the world apply the same policies and
procedures?

5. During the Vancouver AIDS Conference, the cosponsors and
hosts managed to secure health insurance for all participants attending the
International AIDS conference – is Toronto going to be doing the
same.

These are just some of the questions that spring to mind, and I do
know that there are colleagues and friends in Toronto at the Local
Organising Committee and ICASO who are trying to deal with these issues and get
answers. I also hope that they understand where my concern is coming
from, as I would not want us to have empty promises by politicians in
the run up to the conference, and then endless problems and
discrimination for people who are labeled within the system after the
conference.

I am certainly not advocating for a boycott, because as we know there
are now more and more countries that have introduced discriminatory
laws against people with HIV/AIDS (yes I know that there are other
exclusions as well, but this one impacts on so many of us), and this could then
mean that the countries that could host the international AIDS
Conference would be very limited…BUT,

I do seriously think that the International AIDS Society, the
conference cosponsors and we as an international community have to seriously
look at how host countries/cities are chosen, what is the purpose of these
conferences (an ongoing debate and discussion I know) and remind
ourselves of the passion, activism and reasoning that has prevented
conferences from going to the US.

So either we stop the façade of saying we cannot host a conference in
the US because of their travel restrictions, or we apply the same
policies and criteria across the board.

I am also equally sure, that we are going to receive many pc answers,
many answers that are not going to satisfy us, and many of us will
still go through the humiliation and stress of applying for a visa,
providing letters and answering sensitive questions through a glass window in a
public waiting room, fly endless hours to get to Toronto, experience
hassles at immigration because we happen to be from a developing
country, register for the conference, get our scholarships, reconnect
with old friends and listen to badly presented papers and then get
excited about the host city of the next conference…which is supposed
to be in a developing country again….oh the passion!

Shaun Mellors
HIV/AIDS Consultant and Trainer
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