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Securization of HIV response: Conceptual, empirical and pragmatic challenges.

Securization of HIV response: Conceptual, empirical and pragmatic challenges. Joe Thomas. MSc. PhD International Center for Health Equity Inc. Out line of the presentation. a) Introduction b) Statement of problems b) HIV/AIDS and Security

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Securization of HIV response: Conceptual, empirical and pragmatic challenges.

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  1. Securization of HIV response: Conceptual, empirical and pragmatic challenges. Joe Thomas. MSc. PhD International Center for Health Equity Inc

  2. Out line of the presentation • a) Introduction • b) Statement of problems • b) HIV/AIDS and Security • c) Impact of HIV/AIDS on military and uniformed services and their responses • d) HIV/AIDS and “Human Security”

  3. Objective this presentation • To call the attention of the civil society, researcher and policy makers on evolving “Securization of HIV response”, its conceptual, empirical and pragmatic challenges.

  4. Statement of the problem • What kinds of human insecurities does HIV/AIDS generate? • What are the implications of HIV/AIDS for national security? • To what extent is the global AIDS pandemic a threat to international security? • What can the armed forces do to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS? • What is gained by calling HIV/AIDS a security issue, rather than a health or development issue? • What lessons can be learned from the securitization of HIV/AIDS for securitization theory? • Should HIV/AIDS be singled out from other diseases as a threat to international security? • How does HIV/AIDS affect international peacekeeping operations • Do other infectious diseases have security implications as well?

  5. HIV/AIDS and Security • The rapid spread of HIV pandemic now represents a major social and economic crisis in much of the developing world, as well as a public policy crisis of unprecedented proportions. • One of the more striking features of international responses to HIV/AIDS has been the framing of the pandemic in terms of ‘security’

  6. HIV/AIDS and Security • The first time in its history of the United Nations Security Council On 10 January 2000, it declared a health issue – HIV/AIDS – as a threat to international peace and security.

  7. Security and AIDS • The Global security impact of HIV/AIDS (Piot.P et al 2001) has been an active area of interest for both academic researchers and leaders of multilateral agencies. • The available evidence to date on the links between HIV/AIDS and security suggests real, and potentially significant, risks to national, regional, and global security from the pandemic (Feldbaum H, Lee K, Patel P 2006, Garrett. L 2005)

  8. Ethical challenges…. • Linking AIDS with security also raised the ethical issues of linking HIV/AIDS to security and some of the dangers in linking HIV/AIDS to security, “because the human security agenda, despite its normative and charitable ambitions, contains very strong (and often robustly liberal) Western assumptions about: • (i) how societies ought to deal with the issue of disease; • (ii) how political power should be exercised more generally; and • (iii) ultimately even about what it means to be human”.(Elbe, S.2006 b).

  9. Benefit and challenges • Although "securitizing" the AIDS pandemic could bolster international AIDS initiatives by raising awareness and resources, the language of security simultaneously pushes responses to the disease away from civil society toward military and intelligence organizations with the power to override the civil liberties of persons living with HIV/AIDS.

  10. Benefits and challenges • The security framework, moreover, brings into play a "threat-defence" logic that could undermine international efforts to address the pandemic • because it makes such efforts a function of narrow national interest rather than of altruism, • because it allows states to prioritize AIDS funding for their elites and armed forces who play a crucial role in maintaining security, and • because portraying the illness as an overwhelming "threat" works against ongoing efforts to normalize social perceptions regarding HIV/AIDS

  11. Impact of HIV/AIDS on military and uniformed services and their responses • One of the important aspect of discussion on securitisation of HIV pandemic is an emphasis on HIV/AIDS prevalence in the military. • There are several empirical studies of HIV infection among military forces have been found to be higher than in the general population, and Lindy Heinecken (2003) and Robert Osertgard (2002) both discuss the causes of these relatively high prevalence rates.

  12. Impact of HIV/AIDS on military and uniformed services • The military are highly mobile, face frequent dislocation, are prone to casual sex, are known for their high-risk behavior, and are deployed in socially disrupted and conflict zones that provide the environment for the spread of the disease.

  13. Impact on military.. • Impact on operational capacity and capability of the military forces.

  14. Military and AIDS • The virus has been employed as a systematic tool of warfare in conflicts in Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. • There is also data on systematic nature of the sexual violence perpetrated against women by rebel forces with the intention of spreading HIV/AIDS. (Stefan Elbe, 2002)

  15. Military and AIDS • HIV infection in the armed forces will have both direct and indirect impacts on national and regional security: to the extent that the armed forces could become important vectors of disease transmission, the epidemic may follow troop deployments.

  16. Military and AIDS • Eg. Should the South African National Defence Force be unable to manage the disease efficiently, there may be a profound effect on peace and stability in the entire region (Heinecken)

  17. AIDS and Military… • The studies done to date are largely descriptive and do not offer an account of specific mechanisms by which HIV/AIDS may either directly feed into subsequent transmission or affect other social institutions via weakened military forces.

  18. Peacekeepers and AIDS.. • Some of the Major “troop-contributing countries” (TCCs) with respect to them, the United Nations has no disciplinary authority are from this region. • Eg. . The U.N. Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC), had military forces from Pakistan (provides 3,796), India (3,543), Bangladesh (1,316) and Nepal, (1,139)

  19. Peacekeepers and AIDS • On numerous occasions in the past fifteen years, U.N. peacekeepers have been accused of sexually assaulting or abusing the populations they serve. • A Comprehensive Review of peacekeeper misconduct completed in 2005 identified significant problems and recommended numerous changes to address them. • The U.S. Army and NATO, in a response to the possibility that their deployed troops will be engaged in or facilitate human trafficking, have enacted new policies intended to remove their troops from the demand for women trafficked for sexual services. (Peacekeepers and Prostitutes How Deployed Forces Fuel the Demand for Trafficked Women and New Hope for Stopping It Keith J. Allred 2006. San Diego, California)

  20. Responses…1 • More than 300 senior medical and non-medical government and military officials from 14 Asia-Pacific countries gathered in Pune, India, at the Armed Forces Medical College from 2 to 6 September 2004 to discuss the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the military’s role in defeating the epidemic.

  21. Responses..2 • Representatives came from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the United States, Vietnam, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization. • In addition to the Indian Armed Forces, host-nation participants included the Border Security Force, Coast Guard, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, National Cadet Corps, Assam Rifles, and the civilian police corps.

  22. HIV/AIDS and “Human Security”. • There are two main dimensions to HIV/AIDS and human security. One is the threat to socio-economic development and the other is the threat to human survival • (Ulf Kristoffersson, 2000)

  23. Understanding HIV/AIDS as “Human Security”. • Economic security • Food security • Health security • Personal security • Community security and • Political security,

  24. Economic security • HIV/AIDS pandemic has micro and macro economic impact. • Even when, state provides advance treatment for HIV infection, substantial out of pocket expenditure threatens economic security of the individuals and house hold. • At a macro-economic level the effects are as important, with severe consequences felt at the national economic level and with the general well-being of the people, including adverse effects on life expectancy and overall developmental gains such as literacy rates, mortality and morbidity rates.

  25. Food security • Even when preliminary data exist to establish the food security implications of HIV, very limited large scale studies to establish the trajectories of food security implications and possible interventions to reduce nutritional and food security.

  26. Health security.. • Primary health care systems are fragile or non functional in many countries in Asia. Non equitable distributions of primary health care services are already a serious issue in many countries. HIV pandemic add further severe stress to health security of the vulnerable populations

  27. Personal security • The impact of HIV/AIDS on personal security is abundantly clear on the personal security of women. The security of women is particularly at risk. • Many women who are living with HIV/AIDS are monogamous. Their personal security is compromised by the behaviors of their marital partners

  28. Community security.. • How is HIV is threatening the community security is visible from the data emerging from the North Eastern States of India. • Disproportionate impact of HIV on “Hmar” and “Patite” populations in North Easters States of India needs to be carefully monitored. • It appears that HIV is already impacting the community security of some of the ethnic minority populations groups in this region. • In certain regions, HIV/AIDS is killing people in rate that it even questions the survival of ethnic minority populations.

  29. Political security • Very limited data and analysis on the linkages of political security and HIV/AIDS exist. • It is hypothesized that a high prevalence of HIV infection cold destabilize the political structure of the countries

  30. Conclusion.. • Researchers and activists must be aware of the emerging “biopolitical dimension to the securitization of AIDS” which brings into play a set of potentially racist and normalizing social practices, which, political actors should seek to avoid in their attempts to find appropriate and effective responses to the global AIDS pandemic (Elbe 2006).

  31. Conclusion • To establish the linkages between AIDS ands security much more careful analyse and data is essential from the Asia Pacific region • Raising awareness about the linkages between HIV and human security may allow policy makers, activists, and scholars to begin drawing the links between HIV/AIDS and security in ways that at least minimize some of the dangers “Securitization of HIV/AIDS” • Civil society and policy makers need to expand the conceptual and empirical basis of our understanding about Human security and AIDS

  32. Fort further details please visit AIDS ASIA e FORM http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AIDS_ASIA

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