End of Week Report
Zero Decimation Day Event
Date : 1st Mar 2023
Location : Virtual and in person
HIV/TB Agency, Information and Service Activity (AIS) organized the Zero Discrimination Day virtual and in person event with the purpose to support for achieving objective for zero discrimination to all people living with, at risk of and affected by HIV in all sectors especially in health, education and work place via online zoom platform. This event was held with more than (In person-58 and virtual- 271) participants including representatives of UNAIDS, USAID and other stakeholders, leaders of Key Population and members of Self-Help Groups and Key Population networks from States and Regions across Myanmar.
The objective of the event is as follow:
- Zero Discrimination Day Event aims to achieve individual and all-inclusive participation in the promotion of human rights, tolerance, compassion and peace.
- UNAIDS aims to stop discrimination on PLHIV. UNAIDS is highlighting how the decriminalization of key populations and people living with HIV saves lives and helps advance the end of the AIDS pandemic.
- Zero Discrimination Day encourages people to live with human right and dignity, without considering on age, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, race, skin color, height, weight, education and believes.
So What:
The Zero Discrimination Day Event was organized with the 11 lists of agenda, and Dr Rangaiyan Gurumurthy, Country Director from UNAIDS (Myanmar), delivered the opening speech. Highlighting the opening remarks, he said that human rights violations, fear, prejudice, stigma and discrimination persist everywhere in the world. And, UNAIDS highlighted the need to remove laws that criminalize people living with HIV and key populations. Moreover, he pointed out decriminalization is an essential step toward building a supportive legal and policy environment that addresses the social determinants of health. Punitive laws have been shown to block HIV service access and increase HIV risk. And, harmful laws include the criminalization of same-sex sexual relations, transgender people, HIV exposure, non-disclosure and transmission, drug possession and use, and sex work. He also highlighted that countries that criminalize key populations have seen less progress towards HIV testing and treatment targets over the last five years— with significantly lower percentages of people living with HIV knowing their HIV status and achieving viral suppression than in countries that avoided criminalization. So, decriminalization is a critical element to end AIDS by 2030, and the meaningful engagement of people living with HIV and key populations is critical to ensure countries develop effective laws that do not have negative, unintended consequences.
Dr Sai Lone Tip, Development Assistance Specialist from USAID and Dr Lin Htet, HIV Technical Lead from CPI/AIS also delivered memorable remarks for Zero Discrimination Day, highlighting the importance of self-involvement of the community networks to be zero discrimination and the impact of criminalization laws on key populations. Thus, community networks and respective stakeholders need contribute the
continuous effort to mitigate the criminalization at the mean time that the government, NGO/INGO are implementing and extending HIV related services in Myanmar.
Daw Khin Mar Win, Chairperson from Myanmar Positive Group, delivered greetings and shared the experiences of discrimination among communities and vulnerable groups, and highlighted the situation of CFM cases, NSP targets, community involvement and MPG’s effort for PLHIV. Continuously, Daw Aye Aye Nwe, Policy Officer from UNAIDS shared the key messages regarding the zero-discrimination day. As the highlighting points, she said that there have been the impacts of criminalization all over the world such as violence, assaults and high GBV cases. Regarding the law reforming in Myanmar, the respective officials have been preparing to some extent based on available resources and lessons learnt. U Min San Tun, Deputy Head of Programme from MPG, also shared the objectives and history of zero discrimination day.
In this day, panel discussion on the 2023 Zero Discrimination Day slogan “Save lives: Decriminalise” was conducted by community network leaders and HIV technical experts. The main topics of the discussion include the impact of discrimination on health and social outcomes: impact of discrimination on mental health outcomes, physical health outcomes and social life, the importance of decriminalization and legal protection: different impacts of criminalization and decriminalization, legal issues effected to PLHIV and KP community in access to healthcare services, and challenges in legal related case among KP and PLHIV based on CFM data and response measures for discrimination among key populations and PLHIVs: role of community in response to be zero discrimination in health care setting, work place, social life and education, the effects of decriminalization on health outcomes, and strategies for addressing discrimination in health care settings. Dr Sai Thiha Tun, technical officer from UNAIDS, facilitated the panel discussion as a moderator and Daw Aye Aye Nwe, Policy Officer from UNAIDS, U Min San Tun, Deputy Head of Programme from MPG, U Nay Lin, Executive Director from MMTN, U Sai Aung Kham, Chairperson from NDMN, Daw Hnin Hnin Yu, Chairperson from SWiM and Daw Kyae Mone Lin, Chairperson from MPWN participated as panels.
In this event, Daw Thuzar Win, community advisor from Community Network Consortium on HIV, advocated about the community voices regarding the discrimination issues, healthcare and human rights for PLHIV. These include: community requested decriminalization for the statutory laws for PLHIV and key populations to create the fair and justice world and to save lives, community requested non-discrimination in healthcare settings for PLHIV and key populations, community requested justice in employment plan and at work and community requested justice and non-discrimination in education setting.
After that, the Zero Discrimination Day event was successfully closed, and the guests and attendees were served with lunch.
