Green Party

News Release

Home | Press | Print

Greens List International and National Steps to Fight Global AIDS Epidemic.

Tuesday, August 3, 2004

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-487-0693, mclarty@greens.org
Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576, nallen@acadia.net

GREENS LIST INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL STEPS TO FIGHT THE GLOBAL AIDS EPIDEMIC

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In the wake of the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Green Party leaders and candidates called on the White House to take important steps in the domestic and global fight against AIDS.

The Bush Administration, after years of resistance that cost hundreds of thousands of lives, has relented and now supports making low-cost generic AIDS drugs available internationally.  Until May, $15 billion earmarked for poorer nations could only be used for AIDS drugs approved by the FDA, which until then had only approved brand-name AIDS drugs. The FDA now says it will conduct fast-track reviews of low-cost versions.

But the White House has allegedly back-tracked on the promise, and as French President Jacques Chirac has charged, is now pressuring countries to surrender their right to manufacture low-cost generics in return for trade agreements.

"The WTO allows developing nations to ignore foreign patents in making AIDS drugs, but it doesn't prevent the U.S. from imposing patent restrictions when negotiating bilateral trade pacts," said Greta Browne, Pennsylvania Green candidate for U.S. Congress, 15th District. 

Figures cited at the International AIDS conference show only about 7% of the 6 million HIV infected people in poor nations receiving antiretroviral medicine.

"Greens agree with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan: the U.S. must show global leadership in fighting AIDS," said Tom Hutchings Green candidate for the California Assembly, 33rd District (San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara Counties), and benefits counselor for an AIDS/HIV non-profit.  "With regions of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and eastern Europe facing destabilization because of the epidemic, AIDS is now a global security threat.  Mr. Bush must pressure the IMF and World Bank to cancel the debt of developing nations, freeing up the financial resources necessary to fight AIDS."

Unfortunately, while Congress authorized $3 billion for global AIDS in 2004 (one fifth of the $15 billion five-year package), Bush only asked for $2 billion and resisted Congress's request for emergency supplemental monies. Greens also note that $15 billion is only half of the $30 billion health experts estimate as the U.S.'s fair share.

In addition to full funding for international AIDS treatment and prevention, Greens support the following demands from AIDS activists:

The Bush Administration must stop restricting prevention programs to information about abstinence.  "By blocking condom distribution and other AIDS prevention methods, the President is sacrificing lives in order to appease the religious right," said Carol Rittenhouse, Wisconsin Green candidate for Congress (6th District).

"The greatest danger is in conservative and theocratic nations where women have little power over their own lives and gay people face brutal punishment and death.  These populations need accurate, honest information on what they can do to save their own lives. Sermons about abstinence won't help a mother in Calcutta, a prostitute in Belgrade, a sexually active gay teen in Nairobi."

  • Wealthy nations like the U.S. must increase their contributions to the U.N. Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria: wealthy nations have committed only a fifth of the $3.5 billion that the fund needs in the coming year. 

  • On the home front, the U.S. must make treatment available to the 59,000 low income Americans with HIV who lack access currently and are on waiting lists for the under-funded AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP).  (Greens support single-payer national health insurance, which would guarantee such treatment to all those who need it.)

  • The ban on federal funds for syringe exchange programs must be lifted.  The Clinton Administration maintained the ban and Congress passed a bill in 1998 codifying it, despite numerous studies showing that syringe exchanges reduce the spread of HIV without increasing drug use.

MORE INFORMATION:

The Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org

1711 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193

Cobb/LaMarche 2004
http://www.votecobb.org

Tom Hutchings for California Assembly, 33rd District
http://www.votetom.org

Greta Browne for U.S. Congress (Pennsylvania, 15th District)
Contact: Lehigh Valley Greens at 610-865-9050

 

search: spol, fpol, gbl

News Release

Home | Press