A march and concert at Aids 2010: Human Rights and HIV/AIDS - Now More Than Ever!

 

AIDS 2010 will be the first international AIDS conference to have a human rights theme (“Rights Here, Right Now”), highlighting the crucial role of human rights in the response to HIV. A number of activities are being planned to ensure that, beyond the theme, AIDS 2010 will become a major milestone in the fight for human rights in the context of HIV

These include:

• many sessions devoted to human rights, including a plenary and a focus on human rights issues as part of the presentations on the state of the epidemic during the opening ceremony;
• a human rights networking zone in the conference’s “Global Village” and a human rights booth in the conference’s exhibit area;
• a human rights campaign website (www.HIVhumanrightsnow.org – we expect this site to be up in February 2010), in English, Russian, French, Spanish, and German, providing information about the human rights activities at AIDS 2010, explaining the 10 reasons why human rights should occupy the center of the global AIDS struggle, and encouraging more organizations around the world to endorse the joint statement entitled “Human Rights and HIV/AIDS: Now More Than Ever”, which to date has been endorsed by over 650 organizations and is supported by UNAIDS, UNDP, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; and
• a major march for AIDS and human rights through the city of Vienna.

The Human Rights March and Concert

This event – the first ever march and concert for human rights and HIV – will provide an opportunity for conference participants, but also for all people in Vienna and Austria, to demonstrate their commitment to HIV and human rights. It will consist of a 30-minute peaceful march, some short speeches by highest-level officials (including the executive directors of UNAIDS, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, and the International AIDS Society, the UNDP Administrator, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Princess of Norway, and high-level representatives of the City of Vienna and the Austrian government – some of these remain tbc) and representatives of people living with and affected by HIV, and a concert for human rights. For the concert, we would like to attract one or a couple of well-known artist(s) with a history of support for human rights and/or HIV issues.

When?

The event will take place on Tuesday, 20 July 2010. Participants will start congregating for the march at 19:30 and start marching at 20:00. The speeches will take place on the conference podium from approximately 20:45 to 21:10, followed by the concert that will finish by 22:30.

Where?

The march will start at a location that can easily reached from the conference site by underground – either Schottenring to Schottentor – and proceed to Heldenplatz where the stage for the speeches and concert will be (this remains to be confirmed, but discussions with the City of Vienna are well underway).

Who is organizing the event?

The event is being organized as a conference-affiliated event by a large coalition of international HIV and human rights organizations, working together with Austrian organizations (including AIDS Hilfe Wien as a key partner) and the International AIDS Society, and coordinated by the Public Health Program of the Open Society Institute. 

What will the main messages be?

The event will highlight the central role of human rights in the response to HIV. Under the main theme of human rights, it will focus on the human rights of people living with HIV and the human rights of those affected by HIV: human rights of women; youth; gay, lesbian, and transgender people; sex workers; people who use drugs; people in detention; etc. It will focus on international issues as well as national issues. The organizers have started working with representatives of the various communities, encouraging them to develop their own key messages under the central theme of human rights, to take ownership, and to work with the organizers to define their contribution.   

How many people will participate?

It is difficult to estimate how many people will participate in the march and concert, but we would like to attract 3,000-5,000 of the conference participants, plus an equal number of other people, for a total of 6,000 to 10,000 people. Depending on how much mobilization will happen at the local level, this number could be much higher, particularly for the final event at Heldenplatz.

How will we reach out to people in Vienna and Austria?

A central idea of the event is to mobilize people in Vienna (and beyond) around the conference and human rights. We have started meeting with local and national organizations and want to actively involve the City of Vienna, the other levels of government, political parties, unions, faith-based organizations and churches, human rights and other NGOs, etc. A working group is being established to guide this involvement, and a press conference will be held in early June 2010 to publicly announce the event and to mobilize the population.

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