World News: "US Backs Off Stipulation on AIDS Funds"

"US Backs Off Stipulation on AIDS Funds"

Washington Post, (05.18.2005) David Brown
On Tuesday, the Bush administration pulled back from a plan that would have required grassroots AIDS organizations overseas partly funded with US money to declare their opposition to prostitution and sex trafficking. AIDS organizations that are directly funded by the US government or a federally funded charity are currently required to make the declaration. A CDC document issued last week said grassroots HIV/AIDS groups receiving money through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria must make the declaration. The Global Fund itself is exempt from the requirement. The policy would have required 3,000 groups in 128 countries to make the pledge, which AIDS activists warned could engender fear and resentment in some nations and make it harder to reach sex workers.Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Kevin W. Keane said Tuesday night that the posting of the CDC document, which appeared in two "requests for applications" for contracts for AIDS activities in Africa, was "a misunderstanding." The language "hadn't been fully reviewed and cleared," Keane said. "We are removing that language."Randall L. Tobias, director of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), learned of the CDC posting last week before a visit to Africa. The policy "is not one I have seen and considered," he noted. "It is something that I would want to sign off on one way or another."Keane said Tobias has rescinded the policy. The anti-prostitution clause has been a part of PEPFAR since its 2003 inception, though it exempted multilateral organizations such as the Global Fund and the World Health Organization. US charities working overseas were initially exempt; they are now being asked to comply.PEPFAR regulations state that nothing in the anti-prostitution clause should be construed to preclude services to sex workers. But Maurice I. Middleburg, acting president of Engender Health, a charity working in 16 countries, said the declaration "risks further stigmatization of a population [prostitutes] that is already very difficult to reach."