Abstract #3483  -  Workshop Description:

Authors:

Presenting Author:

Dr Eileen Moyer - University of Amsterdam

Additional Authors

Dr Anita Hardon, Ms Nienke Westerhof, Mr Rhon Reynolds

Aim:

In 1983 12 gay American men with AIDS adopted the Denver Principles, the foundational document for self-empowerment movements for people living with HIV and AIDS. The manifesto called for a series of rights, together with recommendations for health care providers, AIDS service organizations and people living with AIDS. Just over a decade later, in 1994, the Denver Principles provided the basis for the Paris Declaration, which called for the Greater Involvement of People with HIV and AIDS (the GIPA principle) to be upheld on a global scale. In 2014 -the year GIPA turned twenty - United States National Association of People with AIDS, the organization that established the Denver Principles, suspended operations and filed for bankruptcy, perhaps an indication that it was the end of an era. The combination of decreased funding for the HIV response as a whole, community based support programs in particular, and the growing availability of antiretroviral treatment has led to a transformation in HIV advocacy and activism across the globe, as well as shifts in community engagement. In this workshop, we invite key HIV activists working at the global level and social scientists engaged in studying HIV-related social movements to reflect on these changes. Are we witnessing the end of HIV activism, or simply new and diverse forms of activism and advocacy? What do these new forms look like, and what do they offer? Are such transformations inevitable? Should we heed the warming of long-term activists or understand their seeming longing for the days of direct action and a politics of outrage as a form of nostalgia? Is GIPA still viable, or have accusations HIV exceptionalism and, of elitism and corruption within activist organizations made it untenable under current norms of transparency? These are some of the questions we will take up in this workshop.

Method / Issue:

This workshop will include participants from academia and civil society who have been involved in researching and advocating for HIV-related activism and community engagement at the global level over the last 20 years, most of whom also have extensive experience working at community- and national-levels. By including speakers from different backgrounds, i.e., HIV positive men, women, youth and members of ‘key populations’, we aim to highlight the relationship between identity, diversity, community and representation, paying close attention to how this has shifted over time as a consequence of the increasing availability of HIV treatment and the biomedicalization of HIV prevention. Topics we will address include: To what extent is the GIPA principle being upheld today? What is‘meaningful’ people living with HIV involvement? What are the challenges to and good practices of implementing GIPA in organizations and governments? The impact of GIPA on health outcomes of people living with HIV and the services they access. Improving collaboration between science and people living with HIV. Benefits and challenges to community-led research. Transformation of the treatment activism in the age of ART availability: from oppositional civil society participation in politics to direct negotiation and collaboration. HIV activism within the context of other political projects. Stigma and discrimination within community groups: gender, generation and key populations. Life for activists in a post-activism world.

Results / Comments:

This workshop will be organized as a roundtable. Panel members will each be invited to prepare short introductory remarks on one of the above topics. Other panel members will be invited to respond, as will workshop participants seated in the audience. The aim is to promote open discussion among panelists and audience members with the goal of advancing our understanding of the current state and value of GIPA in various contexts, including activist agendas, global/national policy making, local practices, and scientific research.

Go Back