A seminar on human rights and the law relating to
HIV/AIDS was held in mid December in Shanghai, giving usually
invisible groups of people the opportunity to have their voices
heard in public.
It was the first of its kind in China, with
representatives of non-governmental organizations and gay and
lesbian communities discussing HIV/AIDS issues with scholars of
law, public policy, medical science and the media.
Speaking at the seminar, Li Dun, a professor of
public policy at Beijing's Tsinghua University, said that few
people in China would say they did not respect the human rights of
others. "But when it comes to HIV/AIDS, neglect and violation of
human rights still occur."
"Some medical workers lack professional training,
and some hospitals and doctors even refuse to provide services to
HIV/AIDS patients," said Ren Guoliang, a 31-year-old with AIDS from
northwest China's Shaanxi
Province.
On behalf of various groups of people with
HIV/AIDS, he called for legislation to guarantee rational medical
services for those who test positive for HIV; respect for patients'
right to know; provision of legal assistance; the setting-up of a
fund to compensate those who get infected from blood transfusions;
and open access to health information.
Li said intentional or unintentional discrimination
stems from the fact that "AIDS has touched upon profound issues of
culture, economy and ideology. It has long been ideologized and
stigmatized in China."
Yang Shaogang, a professor of law, cited a case he
is representing in which five hemophiliacs are suing the Shanghai
Biological Products Institute for breaking the law in its failure
to properly screen blood products, leaving them all HIV
positive.
The institute refused to compensate them, despite
compensating all 54 Shanghai residents who had been infected by the
same batch of products with 100,000 yuan (US$12,500) each, plus a
monthly subsidy of 1,000 yuan (US$120) and free medication worth
3-5,000 yuan (US$361-602) a month.
Yang said it "shows we still have much to do to
provide legal guarantees of human rights for people living with
HIV/AIDS, even though it has been written into our Constitution
that the state respects and safeguards human rights."
When AIDS was first diagnosed in China in 1985, in
a Portuguese tourist who died here, it was regarded as "a Western
disease exclusively caused by a decaying bourgeois life style,"
said Yang.
Officials believed that Chinese attitudes towards
sex and public censure of individual choices would help keep AIDS
away. Foreigners coming to China for longer than a year are
required to have an HIV test, as are Chinese who have stayed abroad
for three months or more.
Despite such determination to keep AIDS out of
China, it has spread quickly, with official figures for infections
hitting 840,000 by the end of 2003.
"This year is a turning point, a signal of starting
a nationwide campaign against AIDS," Yang said.
"Vice Premier Wu Yi
visited AIDS patients in the hardest hit region in central Henan
Province. And the government invested huge amounts of money
into prevention campaigns and medicines for local communities
around the country. This commitment shows the determination of the
government and people to fight its spread," Yang said.
To eliminate discrimination is "the starting point
in China's endeavor to win the battle against the AIDS epidemic,"
said Wan Yanhai, director of Beijing Aizhixing Institute of Health
Education.
Participants agreed that it is impossible to reduce
infection rates solely through ideological preaching or condom
distribution.
"If we don't honestly honor the rights of
disenfranchised groups to health, and respect the rights of people
with HIV, the disease is not likely to be kept at bay," experts
said.
Meanwhile, Kan Zhiming, one of the hemophiliacs in
the lawsuit against the Shanghai institute, is determined to go on
with his legal battle, and has appealed to the intermediate court
with Yang's support.
(China Daily December 29, 2004)