Press briefing on Hiv/aids and un workplace

 

For the first time in United Nations history, the world body has launched a system-wide staff training programme dealing with one of the most pressing issues of the day -- HIV/AIDS and the workplace.

The daily orientation sessions, which kicked off yesterday at United Nations Headquarters in New York, will focus on the vital role the workplace can play in the wider struggle to limit the spread and effects of the epidemic, including information on how to avoid HIV infection and information on testing for HIV.  Another major focus will be to create a workplace environment free from stigma and discrimination.

Martina Clark, an HIV-positive human resources officer from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said today that discrimination against people with HIV threatened fundamental principles and rights at work, and that the new programme represented a concerted effort -– in New York as well as Organization-wide -- to make sure that all of the United Nations staff learned about HIV and AIDS for themselves.

“This is an inter-agency effort to reach all of the staff in New York.  It will continue at least until June, until we’re done, because there’s about 8,000 staff in New York.  There’s a lot of staff to train”, she said.  “We feel that, if we don’t practice in-house what we are telling the rest of the world to do on HIV/AIDS, we’re not credible.”

The half-day sessions welcomed “all staff at all levels” for discussions about the basics of HIV -– what it is, what it is not, how it is transmitted, how it is not transmitted -- about prevention efforts, protection from infection, and also about resources in the New York area.  Another focus would be the United Nations own “very good” personnel policies, which date from about 1991, she said.

Ms. Clark had briefed the Secretary-General’s Cabinet earlier this morning to highlight the world body’s efforts to cope with education on HIV/AIDS.  She informed the Senior Management that it had been estimated that probably about 5 per cent of United Nations staff worldwide were living with HIV.  “We’re not immune to this because we have diplomatic passports.  We’re equally vulnerable”, she said, stressing that the Organization did not do any mandatory HIV testing, but that treatment could be made available.

“We’re really trying to bring the issue in-house, because, again, there’s the perception, I think, among many educated people that HIV/AIDS is somebody else’s issue, that it doesn’t affect us, when, in fact, it’s very much our issue, as well as a priority programme issue for the United Nations”, she said.  The sessions would also benefit from a new video, which documented, for the first time, staff living with HIV, including Ms. Clark.

“This is quite exciting and groundbreaking because it’s the first type of training of its kind in the New York duty station for anything”, she said.  “When we set up this programme to do an inter-agency collaborative training effort, we looked back to see if there was a model we could follow, and found out that, in fact, there has never been training for any staff at this duty station on any issue.  Hopefully all the staff will come and learn a lot.”

On the programme’s specifics, she said 80 facilitators had been trained.  Half of them were experts from within the United Nations system – either human resource officers, or HIV specialists or from the Staff Association – trained especially for these sessions.  The other half were New York area volunteers, including some graduate students doing their Master’s degree work in public health, or employees from the New York State Health Department.

Responding to questions, she said the Staff Council had taken a basic estimate of HIV prevalence rates in the countries where United Nations staff were stationed, and how many staff were working in those countries, and then made a qualified guess.

“That is how we came up with 5 per cent of our staff”, she said, stressing that there might never be hard data on staff living with HIV, because the organization did not test for the disease.  HIV testing was absolutely not a requirement for working at the United Nations, because it was more important to value individuals’ human rights than to test someone against their will, she reiterated.

She stressed that the programme was not mandatory, but was strongly encouraged, and staff would be given certificates that they could put in their personnel files and managers were held accountable to make sure their staff attended.  “So no one will be fired if they don’t go, but it is strongly encouraged for all staff”, she said.

One of the problems, in any organization, was that there was a lot of fear surrounding HIV.  “We did some surveys and found that, indeed, a lot of people are afraid to be tested in the United Nations because they’re afraid that if someone found out about it, they would be discriminated against.  This is one of those things that we talk about so much as a programme issue, but haven’t talked about it enough in-house, and so we haven’t broken down the stigma that’s attached.”

“So we’re hoping that, by doing these sessions – even if not every single person attends –- most of the people who go will begin talking about it in their offices so that, hopefully, more people will start to feel comfortable enough to get tested so that they can know their own HIV status”, she said.  There were a lot of misconceptions going around, including the notion that, if a person worked with someone who was HIV-positive, they would have to keep disinfecting their desk to remain safe.

She said that HIV was covered for all staff working in the United Nations that had contracts that provided insurance.  And because there was group coverage, there was no way that anyone could be excluded because they were HIV-positive.

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