The International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) is a global network of people living with HIV, community activists, and their supporters working to achieve universal access to HIV treatment and other life-saving medicines. ITPC stands with global community-led networks in support of HIV2020 (the HIV 2020 Alliance) as an alternative to AIDS2020, the International AIDS Conference to be held in San Francisco/Oakland in the United States of America next year.
The location for AIDS2020 compelled advocates to recommend against hosting the conference in the U.S.A. given the current administration’s discriminatory practices and current travel restrictions which act as a barrier for sex workers, people who use drugs and people who have been formerly arrested to enter the country. Dr. Ava Avalos, Vice Chair of the ITPC Global Board, explained, “The fact that this alternative conference has to take place in the first place is a sad testament to the horrible situation immigrants, people of color and LGBTs find themselves in right now in the U.S.A.”
The HIV2020 Alliance brings together global key population-led networks, networks of people living with HIV and treatment activists and allies, to provide a safe gathering place for individuals who cannot or will not enter the U.S.A. in 2020. People living with HIV, gay and bisexual men, people who use drugs, sex workers, transgender people, youth, treatment activists and indigenous advocates worked together to specifically tailor HIV2020 to the needs of frontline community members. The event will be an international, inter-disciplinary, sex positive and key population-led event. It centres on issues of equity, parity and inclusion, and reaffirms the critical role communities play in the HIV response worldwide.
“Where there is a gathering of a critical mass of people living with HIV, ITPC will ensure that treatment access issues are raised. As a member of the HIV2020 Alliance, ITPC stands with its partners and encourages communities living with HIV and treatment activists to participate in this alternative conference,” Solange Baptiste, Executive Director of ITPC, explained.
ITPC respects the individual decisions of those who attend the AIDS2020 conference, and we support communities living with HIV in the U.S.A. who are working towards ensuring that AIDS2020 pushes their domestic advocacy agenda.
HIV2020 is scheduled to take place in Mexico City, from July 5th to 7th, 2020, and will run concurrently with the first half of the International AIDS Conference. The HIV2020 Alliance has opened registration and issued a call for Expressions of Interest in leading programs for the conference. This month, organisers will also open applications for scholarships to support advocates to attend the event to ensure that more community members have the resources to participate.
More information about the conference can be found on the website: https://www.hiv2020.org
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