Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance Gears up for 2008

September 10, 2007

Rebecca Larson of the ELCA and Dr. Manoj Kurian of the WCC discuss prevention strategies during a break at the HIV and AIDS Strategy Group meeting. Photo: K. McNeely/CWS

Church World Service is working closely with the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) to speed up universal access for HIV and AIDS treatment. At a recent meeting of the Strategy Group the goals of EAA’s “Keep the Promise” campaign on HIV and AIDS were reviewed in light of upcoming opportunities.

The campaign seeks to hold individuals, religious leaders, faith organizations, governments and intergovernmental organizations accountable for the commitments they have made.

The campaign also urges drug companies to provide pediatric formulations for HIV and AIDS drugs, advocates for governments to set policies that expand access to medicines and promotes countries’ rights to use the flexibilities allowed under Trade Related Intellectual Property (TRIPS) agreements made at the WTO to provide greater access to medicines.

At the meeting Strategy Group members urged representatives of UNAIDS to remain faithful to the goals set by the 2006 G8 and UNGASS political declaration. The declaration committed the world's governments to pursue “all necessary efforts to scale up nationally driven, sustainable and comprehensive responses to achieve broad multisectoral coverage for prevention, treatment, care and support, with full and active participation of people living with HIV, vulnerable groups, most affected communities, civil society and the private sector, towards achieving the goal of universal access to comprehensive prevention programmes, treatment, care and support by 2010.”

In June 2008 the UN General Assembly will meet again to evaluate the promises made around AIDS over the past 7 years. In 2006 CWS worked with partners of the EAA to raise a strong civil society voice for governments to keep their promises. In 2008 religious representatives of civil society from around the world will play a similar role urging governments to fulfill the promises they made and expand treatment, care and prevention programs.

In August 2008 the world community will come together for the international AIDS conference in Mexico City. The EAA is planning a high level religious leaders meeting to precede the conference as well as ecumenical and interfaith pre-conferences to ensure that the voice of the world religious community is heard.

Keep the Promise campaign recently celebrated a ruling from the Madras High Court that dismissed a challenge from the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, Novartis, on the constitutionality of India’s patent law. Novartis had filed a petition with the high court challenging Indian patent law’s constitutionality after the Indian Patent Controller’s Office had refused to grant a patent for its cancer medicine Glivec.

The decision can affect the generic manufacture of thousands of other essential medicines in India which are made available not only to those not able to afford branded medicines in India, but around the world. The Glivec application was rejected on the grounds that the medicine was simply a new form of an old medicine with a trivial change, something which cannot be patented under Indian law.

The EAA HIV and AIDS Strategy Group is made up of representatives from Christian organizations and churches around the world including Lutheran world relief, India; African Network of Religious Leaders living with or personally affected by HIV and AIDS (ANERELA+); Norwegian Church Aid; World Council of Churches; Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Church World Service; World Association for Christian Communication; MAP International; Church of Sweden; Caritas Internationalis; Church Development Service (Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst - EED).