Dear Editor,
The Vienna Conference AIDS 2010 theme, ‘Rights Here, Right Now,’ emphasizes the critical connection between human rights and HIV. A rights-based approach to HIV/AIDS action in the workplace is the core of the trade union strategy. Stigma and discrimination are major barriers to HIV prevention and treatment. They also contribute to misguided polices and misallocated resources. We recognize that trade unions have played a leading role in advocating that government play their part in ensuring that treatment is available to all.
The trade union movement celebrates the adoption of the first international standard to focus explicitly on HIV/AIDS and the world of work adopted by the International Labour Conference on 17.6.10. All members, representing trade unions from all over the world, got involved in tireless negotiations and building partnerships with governments and employers. The recommendation which emerged is a guidance instrument which does not require ratification to be used at country level. That is why the trade union movement feels that we can start immediately.
Trade unions intend to focus on developing strong partnerships at the national, regional and international level to secure the widest and most effective implementation of the new recommendation. Our goal is to demand the establishment of national workplace policies on HIV/AIDS that fully respect the standards set up in the instrument.
As the following step, we intend to demand development of national strategies on the implementation of these policies. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has the face of a worker, since over 90% of people living with HIV/AIDS are of working age. The workplace needs to be a key focus for interventions because it brings together those in the peak reproductive years; it is an area of stigma and discrimination; and it can offer structures and mechanisms for effective responses. Trade unions have a role as gatekeepers to the world of work, the partners of employers as well as defenders of workers’ rights and promoters of their well-being. We now have an instrument that should be a source of pride for the ILO and its constituents as it finally gained unprecedented support from all the partners. We have no time to waste however. The engagement of those who have given birth to it – the governments, employers, workers, as well as all stakeholders – will be crucial to the development and implementation of national workplace policies anchored in human rights and directed at overcoming discrimination.
We remain united in the global response!
Yours faithfully
Sherwood Clarke
HIV/AIDS Coordinator