Systems that entrench marginalisation
have been dealt a blow. For those of us who have invested so much time to reach
out to groups most at risk of HIV infection have been empowered to address the
epidemic in the most effective way possible. First and foremost the term ‘prostitution’
and ‘sex-work’ as they apply to a public health practitioner and activist will
have a far larger meaning and human face to it. Secondly stigma and
discrimination which have been the sands in which to hide many of the service
providers’ heads have been flattened. Thirdly this decision has opened ways for
many countries’ embracing policy towards sex-work. There is bound to be
progress in leaps in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. A landmark ruling by
the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has made it so. Love, Liberty and pursuit of
happiness is been made even firmer. This landmark decision is loaded with
opportunities and possibilities in defending independence and access to
services by all. This means that policy and resources will be committed towards
interventions in which those caught in vulnerabilities that expose one to
HIV/AIDS or STIs are provided treatment, healing and managed without
discrimination. It means that those in sex-work will organize, in their
organizations they will create spaces for leadership and in these organizations
such elements like self determination, esteem and duty will be possible. No
more will sex-work be looked at with ridicule. As sexual minorities, this
demography will join the system of those who demand social services and will
influence service delivery. Those in service delivery will no longer have their
hands tied. Sex-work has now been put on the radar. Sex-work cannot be separated
from public health. According to UNAIDS, the decision would “expand and improve
the global AIDS response even further”. Funds from US will go a long way in
ensuring this. The US has been very instrumental since 2003, when it adopted
the United States Leadership against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act in
2003, which authorised the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)-the
largest health initiative undertaken by one country to address the global
health epidemic. The commitment to untangle generations of patriarchal,
chauvinistic, dominance-subjugation, master-slavery tendencies that seep into
the way most of policy, programme and activities are done will be possible: There will be a degree amount of and planning
that targets sex-work and its effects in Africa; Issues like access, equal
power, freedom of movement, access to jobs, access to jobs, ownership to
property, equal treatment before the law, equal pay for equal work, access to
resources, controlling dress, violence will be discouraged in the strongest
terms against those in sex-work by those used to lynching; NGOs will address
the HIV/AIDS epidemic with evidence-based intervention free from political
agenda and discrimination and; use of
proper language will be possible. These themes will form the activist agenda.
Such thematic issues like: Sexual and reproductive health and rights will be
expanded upon and provided logistics. Women and girls worldwide are going to
reap so much from this decision. It will fulfil their basic human right to life
saving health care. Health groups will no longer be forced by the US Government
to denounce prostitution as a condition of receiving federal funding to fight
HIV/AIDS around the world after the Supreme Court made a free-speech ruling on
June 20 (The Lancet, Volume 381, No. 9885, June 29-July 5, 2013). Peter Piot of the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine, UK, and the former director of UNAIDS described this court
decision as “victory of public health and scientific evidence over ideology and
bigotry”. The pooled HIV prevalence among sex-workers in Sub-Saharan Africa is
36.9%. HIV must not win. Let us work towards including everyone in the fight to
bring AIDS epidemic to an end.
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