By Anna-Louisa Crago
What is the Global Commission on HIV and the Law (GCHL)?
It is a commission put in place by the UN to study the impact of different laws on HIV-prevention, treatment and care. It also studies the impact of laws on discrimination and violence against people living with HIV or at high-risk of HIV.

The commissioners are a group of highly respected individuals and experts from around the world and include former heads of state, judges and policy experts. They are advised by a committee of technical experts with extensive knowledge about HIV and the law.

The commission is particular because it is independent of the UN. That means that the commissioners can come to their own conclusions, even if coutries within the UN or UN workers disagree with these.

What does the GCHL have to do with SWAN?

Individuals and groups from the CEE/CA, as well as other regions,were invited to submit testimony about the impact of different laws and HIV. SWAN submitted a submission that tried to include experiences from all across the region. Many other SWAN groups individually submitted such as HOPS (Macedonia), Lega-Life (Ukraine) and HESED (Bulgaria).

By Marija Tosheva, HOPS

In late June, 2011 the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, hosted a meeting in Budapest for 30 delegates from the countries of Central and South East Europe (SWAN was also represented), with supporters from Western Europe, to launch the Network of Low Prevalence Countries in Central and South East Europe – NeLP (http://nelp-hiv.org/budapest-declaration).

By Petra Timmermans, ICRSE Coordinator and Rayna Dimitrova, HESED

Recently in Bulgaria sex workers have taken the first tentative steps to mobilising for their rights.
On 29 August plans were put into place for a demonstration in response to recent police activity that has focused on arresting and detaining sex workers working along the main ring road around Sofia. Charges related to immoral behavior and/or causing traffic accidents are being used in what could be described as an attempt to rid Sofia of prostitutes. However, the demonstration did not take place as planned. Although around 20 sex workers showed up there were so many journalists taking photographs that most of the women became nervous and left.

By Aliya Rakhmetova
Beginning of November 2011, Ukrainian Verhovnaya Rada (a supreme body similar to Parliament) reviewed a bill on changing the legislation around ‘prostitution’. In the background note, Mogilev, the Minister of Interior, writes that the reason for the reform is the fact that existing legislation is not working (news article link http://cripo.com.ua/index.php?sect_id=10&aid=125635 ).

Eurasian Harm Reduction Network followed the initiative of Latin American groups and developed a petition to the Global Fund's (GF) Board in advance of their meeting next week to express their concerns over potential negative implications of the GF reform following the recommendations of the High Level Panel. It started off as a regional initiative in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, but has now grown to represent broader regional concerns and focus on the communities of key affected populations.

Beginning of November 2011, Ukrainian Verhovnaya Rada (a supreme body similar to Parliament) reviewed a bill on changing the legislation around ‘prostitution’. In the background note, Mogilev, the Minister of Interior, writes that the reason for the reform is the fact that existing legislation is not working (news article link http://cripo.com.ua/index.php?sect_id=10&aid=125635 ).

SOFIA, August 31, 2011 - Sex worker in Sofia protest current situation with sex work and police attitudes. Below is the news report from the Ring Road (in Bulgaria).

Translation of text coverage at http://tv7.bg/bodilnik/news/900052.html :

June, Barnaul – It has been ten years since the regional public organization "Siberian Initiative", a member of SWAN in Russia, held its first volunteer summer school, which has become a unique forum for volunteers from Russia and other countries. The school is a space, where volunteers from different organizations and regions learn, share experiences and knowledge, communicate and relax.
At different times the Volunteer Summer School hosted volunteers not only from Russia, but also Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, USA, Sweden, Italy and Canada. Over the years the Summer School trained over 1,000 young people representing more than 300 state, municipal and public organizations from 47 Russian regions. Volunteers increase their energy, improve their knowledge, help organize productive cooperation and promote their further development. This is an excellent opportunity to promote and develop further the movement of volunteer service to the society.

The Association of Hungarian Sex Workers carried out a postcard campaign with SWAN support on December 17th. We prepared the attached postcard with the picture taken at the red umbrella march which also celebrated our association’s 10th birthdays. We sent the postcards to our key partners, newspaper and magazine editors, members of parliament, decision makers, NGOs, as well as to international networks. This was the first occasion when we used the power of choosing and delivering our own message; usually we are represented in the media in the form of quotes, reports or interviews. We think that this is a proactive method to catch the public’s attention, so we decided to put a greater emphasis on new media initiatives (promoting sex worker blogs, advocacy videos, etc.) in the future. We got positive feedback so far: several journalists contacted us who we were not in contact before.

HESED initiated a number of activities to mark December 17th, starting with a meeting with local institutions and organisations to introduce them to the day and to sensitized them to ways of speaking about sex workers in order to reduce stigma against sex work and vulnerable groups. This is the second meeting on this issue organized by HESED, the first was on 17th December 2009 and it has now become a “tradition”.