All of us here at Ctrl.Alt.Shift HQ were delighted to hear the news that the USA is finally getting around to scrapping its travel ban against people living with HIV, just as Ctrl.Alt.Shift called for over the last year. A new federal rule will come into force in early 2010, and will lift a ban which has prevented people who are HIV positive from entering America.
Raising awareness of, and protesting against, HIV travel bans has been one of our longest running campaigns. In October last year we protested outside the embassies of many countries which still retain the ban, including Russia and Saudi Arabia. Ctrl.Alt.Shift ambassador Tinchy Stryder even came down to the protests, motivated by the idea of drawing the spotlight onto an issue which many people are shocked to discover even exists.
Barack Obama announced that just after the new year the paperwork will finally go through to scrap the law which has been in place for over 20 years. Credit where it's due, surprisingly, to George Bush who began the process of scaling down the rules last year. Obama, though, has gone further: "We talk about reducing the stigma of this disease, yet we've treated a visitor living with it as a threat," he said at the White House, "If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it."
Physicians for Human Rights said that the end of the ban is "monumental", adding "Today is a great day for human rights and for people living with AIDS, their friends and their families. The HIV Travel Ban made the United States a pariah in human rights circles, and harmed our reputation as a world leader of HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care. Starting in 2010, people living with HIV will no longer be prevented from entering this country, no longer turned away at customs, no longer forced to hide their condition and interrupt medical treatment, and no longer be treated by our government with contempt."
However, there are still eleven countries that bar entry to travellers based on their HIV status. These are Armenia, Brunei, Iraq, Libya, Moldova, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Sudan. Ctrl.Alt.Shift will continue to agitate and protest until all these bans are lifted.
Words: Kevin E.G. Perry
Photos: Ctrl.Alt.Shift archive