Global AIDS and The Human Right To Health

Moderator

Janet Wu, Healthcast Reporter WHDH 7News Boston

After taking a year off for graduate study and travel, Janet Wu returned to 7NEWS and was recently promoted to 7NEWS Healthcast reporter and substitute anchor. Prior to joining 7NEWS, Janet Wu was anchor/reporter in Seattle and Honolulu.

As a published writer, Janet has lectured at Boston University, Brandeis, Bentley and Emerson College. She is also multilingual speaking both Chinese and Spanish, in addition to English. Janet works with a number of social organizations including the South Cove Community Health Center, the American Heart Association, the ROSE Fund and friends of Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Currently a candidate for a master's degree in literature and creative writing at Harvard University, Janet received her bachelor's degree from Yale University and her master's degree at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and International Affairs.

Discussion Leaders

Sandra L. Thurman President and Chief Executive Officer International Aids Trust

We are so pleased to welcome Sandra Thurman to the Circle's family. For nearly two decades, Ms. Thurman has been a leader and advocate for people with AIDS at the local, national and international levels. She is one of the world's leading experts on AIDS issues and has provided testimony before the U.S. Congress, the White House Conference on HIV/AIDS, and the National Commission on AIDS. She currently serves as president/CEO of the newly formed International AIDS Trust. Prior to this position, former President Clinton appointed Ms. Thurman as the first Presidential Envoy for AIDS Cooperation. She held this position while continuing as the director of the Office of National AIDS Policy at the White House.

Ms. Thurman has been a tireless advocate on behalf of the disenfranchised and marginalized, spending her college years as a volunteer in a poverty rights program and working as a counselor in a maximum security facility for youthful offenders before turning her attention to health policy. All of us at Global Citizens Circle appreciate Sandra Thurman's participation in this evening's program as we strive to reach out and involve many who have not yet focused their attention on the impact of the AIDS pandemic globally

Ochoro Otunnu, Uganda Lawyer and Human Rights Activist; Co-Founder and Executive Director, Africa Aids Initiative

Ugandan lawyer and humans rights activist Ochoro Otunnu is the co-founder and executive director of Africa AIDS Initiative, a non-profit organization seeking to address the urgent need for funds, medicine, technical expertise, and an integrated approach to the exponential spread of infection, particularly with respect to women and children. The Africa AIDS Initiative is presently developing a number of projects in Uganda, Zambia, Botswana and Ethiopia. Through mobilization of the U.S. private sector, the initiative is dedicated to raising awareness of the extreme nature of the AIDS crisis in Africa.

Mr. Otunnu previously worked for Oxfam America in Boston where he was responsible for their development and emergency relief work in Southern Africa. He also practiced law in New York before co-founding the Africa AIDS Initiative with Rory Kennedy, a documentary film maker, and Dr. Sorosh Roshan, president of the National Council of Women of the United States. Born in Uganda, Mr. Otunnu received his university education at Dartmouth College, Oxford University and Columbia Law School.

Eric Sawyer, AIDS Activist, ACT UP/New York Director, HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Project

We are pleased to welcome Eric Sawyer, co-founder of ACT UP/New York, and director of the HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Project. He was one of five U.S. AIDS activists at a 1999 meeting in Geneva Switzerland on compulsory licensing of essential medical technologies - the first time U.S. AIDS activists have attended an international meeting on trade and intellectual-property policies with effect access to lifesaving drugs.

The majority of people with HIV live in developing countries and have no access to modern medicines even when necessary to save their lives. Eric speaks out on behalf of these impoverished people with AIDS, informing and educating us that people with AIDS need their human rights to be protected, need access to treatments and also need anew global initiative to get treatments into developing countries.

Eric's message is a wake-up call for all of us. "We must protect human rights and advance access to essential medicines. Because in the global village we have today, the public health of sub-Saharan Africa, India, Thailand, and elsewhere is the public health of the Untied States. As there is now one global economy, there is also one global public health. We need to start acting accordingly."

Co-sponsors

$10,000 anonymous contribution in memory of John O'Connor for dedication to and support of Global Citizens Circle, Omni Parker House, Banknorth, Citizens Funds, The Rendon

Dedicated to the work of Past GCC International Advisor, Jonathan Mann

The Circle is not new to the subject of AIDS. Ten years ago we had our first Circle program on AIDS with Jonathan Mann, who was the architect of the World Health Organization's program on global AIDS and is widely regarded as the leader of the international response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Jonathan also served on our International Advisory Board until his untimely death in a 1998 plane crash.

This evening's pre-premiere clip of A Closer Walk: Global AIDS and the Human Right to Health is the first film to provide a definitive portrayal of mankind's confrontation with the AIDS pandemic. The project was conceived in 1996 by Jonathan Mann and Robert Bilheimer. Shortly before he died, Jonathan Mann wrote, "AIDS is taking advantage of the opportunities society offers it." A Closer Walk teaches us important lessons about the nature of vulnerability; how societal factors are inextricably related to health; and how AIDS and other infectious diseases travel along transnational fault lines of poverty, discrimination, and social inequality. The film urges all of us to find in the facts a lesson about the challenges and responsibilities of world citizenship.

Global Citizens Circle joins in grieving the devastating loss of life resulting from the attacks on September 11.

Our discussion, Global AIDS and Human Right to Health, was scheduled to take place on that tragic day. May this tragedy inspire all of us to a greater sense of humanity, connectedness, and a recognition that many human beings are subjected regularly to inhumane treatment. Our mission becomes more important than ever as we resolve anew to bring diverse groups of people together for discussions that lead to constructive change in the world. Also scheduled to take place on September 11, 2001, was our presentation of the Catherine and Leroy Dunfey Award to Elma Lewis. We were privileged to honor Miss Lewis with the award on October 10, 2001, at a discussion with Harry Belafonte.