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VIII. Recommendations
Revise national regulations to remove burdensome restrictions
that limit the registration and growth of NGOs. In particular, eliminate
membership and minimum funding requirements; eliminate requirements that limit
the number of NGOs working on the same issue in the same region; and eliminate
requirements of supervision by a government agency of NGOs’ day-to-day work.
Allow donors to fund NGOs directly without funneling financial assistance
through a local government agency.
Bring national and local laws and regulations on the Internet
into compliance with China’s commitments under its own constitution and
international law to respect the right to free expression and principles of
non-discrimination. In particular, the eliminate any requirements that websites
be registered with the government, and order the Ministry of Public Security to
cease censorship and shutting down of websites providing AIDS information or
websites that respond to the needs of minority communities.
Invite grassroots organizations to share their input on policy
and legal reform, and to monitor implementation of programs relevant to their
organizational mandates.
Enact and enforce national legislation prohibiting discrimination
against people living with HIV/AIDS and their families in health facilities,
schools, places of employment, and other institutions. Protections from
discrimination should include mechanisms for victims and their guardians to
lodge complaints and receive rapid redress; these mechanisms should be publicly
communicated.
The Ministry of Public Security should hold AIDS training
programs in each province, and train police to work with provincial AIDS
organizations to ensure that AIDS workshops are able to proceed without
interference. They should investigate cases where AIDS workshops have been
disrupted by security forces without a legitimate law enforcement objective.
The State Council Committee on HIV/AIDS should direct provincial
authorities to respect the rights of AIDS and LGBT activists to freedom of
assembly and association, and provide recommendations on avoiding interference
with activists’ work.
The State Council should issue a statement calling on the
Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Public Security and local bureaus under
their direction to investigate local policies and regulations that restrict the
activities and free expression of AIDS organizations and AIDS activists.
Create regulations that allow the establishment of non-profit
orphanages and care facilities for children affected by AIDS.
For the sake of the integrity and success of future AIDS
prevention and control programs in Henan province, the State Council should
authorize a full, independent and impartial investigation into the involvement
of Henan authorities in the transmission of HIV through blood and plasma
collection. If this cannot be accomplished, the United Nations or other
credible international body should be authorized to conduct such an
investigation.
The investigation should also examine the Henan government
detentions of AIDS activists, responses to protests by people living with AIDS,
corruption in the administration of funds intended to benefit people living
with AIDS in Henan, restrictions on domestic and international media, police
abuse, and the state’s closure of nongovernmental AIDS orphanages.
Authorities should take appropriate action, including dismissal,
against any officials determined to have been responsible or negligent in the
blood scandal, or who were involved in the cover-up.
The Ministry of Education and state education bureaus should
ensure that no children are excluded from school or discriminated against in
school because of their or their caregivers’ HIV status. All schools
should receive guidelines on preventing discrimination before it occurs and responding
to individual cases, and protocols for enrolling HIV-positive children that
address maintaining the confidentiality of the child’s HIV status, addressing
the parents’ concerns, and accommodating any special needs the child may
have. States should monitor schools’ compliance.
The Ministry of Health and state health departments, with
assistance from international donors, should ensure that children living with
HIV/AIDS receive all available medical care, including antiretroviral
treatment, and use all possible means to remove barriers to their receiving
care. In particular, they should prohibit government hospitals from
discriminating against people living with HIV/AIDS, set guidelines for
maintaining the confidentiality of HIV status of persons using health services,
and explore ways of better regulating the private sector. They should also
ensure that medical staff have the means to protect themselves from
hospital-based HIV transmission, including protective clothing and
post-exposure prophylaxis. In implementing the government’s antiretroviral drug
program, they should ensure that services are offered in a way that maintains
the confidentiality of participants’ HIV status and that the program reaches
marginalized children, including street children, children in orphanages and
those in other residential institutions.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Public Health, and
their provincial counterparts should all require orphanages and other
institutions that they license to accept qualifying children when there is
space available for them.
The Ministry of Education and state education bureaus should
ensure that all students, at the earliest possible level, receive
age-appropriate information on preventing HIV/AIDS, keeping in mind the low
numbers of children, especially girls, who enroll at the secondary level.
This would be in accord with the recommendations of the 2002 U.N. General
Assembly Special Session on Children. HIV/AIDS education should cover the
correct and consistent use of condoms as the most effective way to prevent HIV
transmission during sexual intercourse, including in long-term unions.
To the Henan provincial government and other
local authorities in China:
Release all AIDS activists currently in detention for protesting
or advocating for access to treatment and care. Promulgate regulations
prohibiting discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS in access to
care.
Establish training programs for healthcare workers in HIV/AIDS
treatment and universal precautions.
Establish training programs for public security officers in
HIV/AIDS and human rights.
Cease restrictions on communication by people with HIV/AIDS with
Chinese or international media.
All donors should advocate for transparency, access to
information for AIDS activists and vulnerable populations.
Donors should condemn the detention of AIDS activists generally,
especially when such detentions are done for the purpose of hiding those
persons from donors.
Other donors should consider adopting the Global Fund’s new
guideline that NGOs participating in their AIDS programs should be demonstrably
organizations that legitimately represent a real community, and not be
“government-organized” NGOs.
Bilateral aid agencies should set aside a pool of funding
targeted to grass-roots Chinese organizations that can be applied for with a
minimal application procedure.
Examine restrictions on application for funding by small
commercial enterprises in China, and develop new ways to facilitate their
ability to apply for funds.
Advocate for revisions of the Social Organizations Regulations to
eliminate burdensome registration and management requirements.
When AIDS activists or lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender
activists are detained, raise public or private concerns with Chinese
colleagues and press for their release.
Assist Chinese AIDS activists in danger of arrest for their AIDS
outreach work to find temporary safe haven.
Support technical assistance programs to give provincial police
extensive human rights and AIDS awareness training.
Provide training for Chinese AIDS and lesbian and gay rights NGOs
on human rights monitoring and reporting.
As part of regular evaluations on China’s progress in combating
the AIDS epidemic, evaluate China’s compliance with the U.N. HIV/AIDS and Human
Rights Guidelines.
Translate the Guidelines into Chinese, distribute them to Chinese
government officials and to local NGOs in China, and make them available on the
UNAIDS China website.
Press the Chinese government to uphold the Guidelines, and to
engage in regular consultation with community organizations on design of AIDS
policy and law.
Support the immediate passage of strong antidiscrimination
legislation that protects the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS and their
families.
Consider a high-level summit or strategy meeting on protecting
the rights of children affected by HIV/AIDS in China.
Inform Chinese and Henan officials that detention of any AIDS
activists in advance of a diplomatic visit to Henan will result in a public
response.
Raise the issues above with Chinese dialogue partners.
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