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CHINA: Laws that Respect Rights of People with HIV Some Way Off
By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING, Nov 27 (IPS) - Turned-away faces, rejected handshakes and a wall
of hostility are a daily reality for Ge Yueqin, a 28-year-old woman who
opted not to shrink from public view because of HIV but went on with her
life and moved in with her boyfriend.
But even with their determination, Ge and her boyfriend, 24-year-old Liu
Yueming, were not expecting a miracle when they approached the local
authorities in the southern city of Guiyang with a request to get married.
They knew the obstacles would be innumerable - under Chinese national
laws persons who are diagnosed with sexually transmitted diseases, HIV or
have mental disorders are prohibited from marrying.
But the husband-to-be, Liu, who has tested negative for HIV, was
determined to marry and settle down.
''Marriage means warmth and stability,'' he told the Guangzhou-based
'Southern Weekend' newspaper, where the unusual story first appeared last
week. ''What else could we hope for?''
Ge and Liu, both former drug addicts, had gone through a hell of
contempt and isolation and believed the future looked bleak without the
hope of making a home together.
Something of a miracle did happen in the end. Not only did the couple
get official approval to tie the knot, but their marriage - the first of
its kind in China - will be publicly celebrated in Beijing to mark World
AIDS Day on Dec. 1.
The state Xinhua news agency reported this week that health officials
and experts invited the couple to the capital to raise awareness of the
disease, which has infected at least one million people in China.
After attending a press conference on Dec. 1, Ge and Liu are expected to
have a public wedding ceremony at the Beijing Ditan Hospital, where many
AIDS patients are treated.
Some find the publicity around the marriage a way of bring HIV/AIDS
discussions out in the open. But its broad publicity in a country where
AIDS remains a cause for embarrassment - from government levels to many
outlets of the state media - has also caused some to question the ethics
behind its use as a propaganda tool.
''Is this a human tragedy or a terrific story of an AIDS-affected
beauty?'' asked the Beijing-based 'China Times' newspaper.
Beijing's record in handling the taboo subject of AIDS so far is bound
to raise questions on whether allowing the marriage of a person living with
HIV is indeed a sign of readiness to promote genuine public debate and
allow the voices of the affected to be heard.
Despite numerous warnings from the international community, the
government has been sluggish to acknowledge the extent of its HIV/AIDS
epidemic. Beijing held its first national AIDS conference last year behind
closed doors and has painstakingly tried to suppress all AIDS-related
stories that might reflect poorly on the country.
But the scope of the epidemic and its fast spread through the general
population has also caught the government off guard.
In July, the Joint U.N. Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) estimated that the
number of people living with HIV in China was 850,000
- a figure with which Beijing at the time concurred. Just two months
later, however, the Chinese Health Ministry raised the official estimate to
one million - the 'AIDS Epidemic Update' released by UNAIDS this week also
uses this figure.
Other sources suggest that the total may be even higher. The U.S.
intelligence community estimates that China has one to two million people
with HIV.
UNAIDS' latest report said: ''Unless effective responses rapidly take
hold, a total of 10 million Chinese will have acquired HIV by the end of
this decade.'' It blamed insufficient government leadership and overall
lack of openness in dealing with the crisis for the spread of the HIV/AIDS
pandemic.
In fact, many Chinese laws attempt to control and supervise people
living with HIV, and to punish people in high-risk groups. While national
laws prohibit HIV-positive persons from marrying, some local laws even
forbid them from swimming in public swimming pools or working in food
services or childcare.
Media reports have described cases of widespread community harassment
and of discrimination by employers, hospitals and schools.
''If the state wants people to come forward, get tested, and learn about
how the disease is transmitted, then legal reform is an urgent priority,''
says Joanne Csete, director of the HIV/AIDS and human rights programme at
Human Rights Watch in New York.
Signs are emerging though that the message is filtering through the wall
of ignorance and lack of tolerance. Suzhou, a city of one million in
Jiangsu province, passed a law in October guaranteeing patients and their
families' equal access to employment, education and health care.
The law, the first of its kind in China, also gives persons living with
the virus the right to sue for redress.
Tolerance is a measure for civilised society, argues Li Yinhe, one of
China's foremost sociologists. ''In civilised and developed countries,
people living with AIDS enjoy the same basic rights as healthy individuals.
In poor and isolated places, AIDS people live in abominable conditions and
sometimes run the risk of execution.''
Chinese researchers have tabled proposals for amendments to existing
laws in order to prevent discrimination against people with HIV, but they
say a national legislation is still a long way off.
''The problem we face is how to preserve the balance between the rights
of AIDS people and healthy individuals,'' says Professor Li Dun, legal
researcher at the Contemporary China Research Centre of Qinghua University.
''While people living with AIDS demand the right of privacy and equal
treatment, healthy individuals want their right of healthy environment and
knowledge of the disease to be protected. There is also the question of
distribution of the state health funds - who has the priority?'' Li asked.
(END/2002)
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