ICAAP YOUTH STATEMENT – August 23, 2007

Delivered at the Closing Ceremony by Ari Yuda Laksmana

Good morning ladies and gentlemen.

On behalf of the youth who participated in the youth forum, I would like to make a statement.

I would like to ask young people in the room who participated in the Youth Forum of the 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific to please stand, and remain standing during my remarks.

-To the rest of you who are seated, I have a question for you. // What is it like to live in a world without AIDS? // All the people standing were born after the pandemic. We do not know a world without AIDS. //

We are already responding in our own ways to HIV/AIDS. We are running programs, educating peers, pushing for social change and uniting in this fight around the world. //

The value of our response has to be recognized as necessary, and mainstreamed.

We strongly urge you to begin viewing us as equal partners in the response to HIV/AIDS and to move beyond the rhetoric of youth participation by funding youth-led initiatives, engaging in true youth-adult partnerships and meaningfully involving young people in policy that affects our lives. //

Therefore, we have laid out concrete steps to be taken to ensure the next ICAAP, held in my country of Indonesia, builds on the process started here over the next two years and beyond. //

We call upon those present here today to work with us to achieve the following in the next two years in Bali:

1. More than double the number of youth participants;
2. Include youth voices by providing space for a youth representative at the opening and closing ceremonies, ensuring a platform for youth to address all congress delegates. Future congresses should include representation for young people, including young people living with HIV/AIDS, in the different segments of the congress programme to provide for the youth perspectives on the different issues;
3. Develop a separate scholarship selection process for young people that addresses problems that youth face when applying to conferences of this nature;
4. Provide support for a youth committee comprised of members from the previous ICAAP youth forums to create a clear process of coordination, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and hand-over of the Youth Forum;
5. Facilitate the meeting of youth at the Congress with high-level decision makers to advocate for youth-specific policy and to seek funding for their work;
6. Have a two-day youth pre-conference to discuss youth-issues of the region, network efficiently and adequately prepare youth to get the most out of ICAAP.
7. Technically and financially support the creation of a regional network of youth-run organizations working with youth. //

Look around this room; what does that tell you about youth participation in this congress? Despite the fact that we comprise over half of all new infections, from the 19 plenary speakers at ICAAP, only ONE was a young person talking about youth issues. //

For all the youth issues in the region and around the world, we had ONE chance to meaningfully address the entire congress – me speaking to you right now. //

We were given only ONE day before the Congress to discuss, deliberate and strategize on all youth issues in all the countries that were represented here. //

We stand firmly united against being tokenized on panels, relegated to abstract sessions and poster presentations, and denied funding to carry out our initiatives.//

We hope that at the next ICAAP, we will not have to stand before you raising the same issues we are forced to raise again and again. We all know we need a great deal of CHANGE in the way we respond to AIDS in our region. Many people think SOMEONE is doing something about the needs and concerns of youth and youth involvement; I did too until I saw the reality.

Constructive ways to ensure the momentum and successes of the previous 3 ICAAP youth forums in Melbourne, Kobe and now Colombo are sustained and expanded upon have already been raised with key conference organizers.

We will do all in our power and effort to ensure that a clear structure for planning, implementing and handing over the future ICAAP youth forums and programs is actioned and supported in full partnership with ALL ICAAP stakeholders. We hope that you'll make it to the table; we will be there, waiting for you.

It is our hope that one day when we ask the youth of the room to rise, they will be the ones who have known a world without AIDS.

See you in Bali.


-Statement composed by youth from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Australia, PNG, Japan and from the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS



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For press inquires:

Guruparan Kumaravadivel Ari Yuda Laksmana

rkguruparan@gmail.com ari@youthaidscoalition.org

(c)0773 704 178

Michel Kazatchi, Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, participated in a "Meet the Leaders" lunch at ICAAP's Asia Pacific Village.

Kazatchki spoke candidly in a lengthy Q & A session with audience members about how the Global Fund functions. Notable statements he made in response to questions included:

-Acknowledging the need to disseminate information about the Global Fund to communities, so more people can become involved and participate in Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCMs).

-Agreeing with an audience member that the grant guidelines are incredibly complex and should be simplified.

-Said he was "very concerned" about indications that the UN's World Food Programme(WFP) plans to pull-out support later this year for several of their HIV/AIDS projects; urged people to lobby and call the WFP.

-Hoped that the Global Fund will eventually have dual track funding, so money goes to governments and NGOs when they receive a Global Fund grant (currently, most of it goes directly to governments).

-Urged people to participate in their country's CCM process, to ensure their voice is heard and the Global Fund money reaches those most in need. If all attempts at becoming involved with the CCM fail, then it is possible to apply for money outside the CCM (but this should be in an exceptional situation).

-When the Global Fund suspends money from a country, it is only after seeing hard evidence that something has gone horribly wrong with the grant, ie corruption; "If we let dysfunction enter the world of the Global Fund, then the Global Fund will be looked at suspiciously be everyone," he said, "And the opportunity we have for universal access will...be lost."

I asked if the Global Fund made an effort to pressure countries to meaningfully involve young people in their CCMS, and he replied that they were now looking at unheard voices and considering new guidelines for representation on the CCMS.

Dear GYCA members -

I will be writing as frequently as possible about the 8th International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. I arrived in Colombo Saturday afternoon (after flying all night from Karachi to Dubai to Colombo) and went straight to the Youth Forum. The YF was a one-day pre-conference organized by the Youth Committee of ICAAP.

ICAAP held its opening cermonies last night with much pomp and circumstance. Although we had planned to have a GYCA meeting before the opening cermony, we were unable to do so due to the high security in the conference center which prevented us from accessing a meeting room. The high security was apparently due to the imminent arrival of Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Rajapaksa made a bizarre speech at the cermony, in which he emphasized that drugs and alcohol were stepping stones to other drugs and thus to HIV infection. It wasn't clear if he was talking about alcohol abuse or consumption in general, but either way it's incredible that public leaders are still permitted to make such misleading statements surrounding HIV/AIDS!

GYCA members Frika Iskandar and Rachel Ong read a statement at the Opening Ceremony which had been prepared earlier that day in the Community Forum. They emphasized the need for govt's and institutions to work with community-based organizations, youth, injection drug users, men who have sex with men, sex workers and other marginalized groups to effect change.

Deborah Landey, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS, read a statement prepared by Peter Piot to the plenary that called for a shift in focus from short-term crisis mangement about the pandemic to a more sustainable, long-term response.

Michel Kazatchkine, head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and Jokapeci Tuberi Cati from the Fiji Network for People Living with HIV, also delivered keynote addresses.

Stay tuned!