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For the urgent attention of His Majesty 
King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev 
Narayanhity Royal Palace 
Durbar Marg 
Kathmandu 
Nepal 
 
By fax: +977 14 413577 and +977 14 228235 

Brussels, 12 April 2006 
 
King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, 
 
I am writing, in name of the 20 million members that the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) represents in 122 countries worldwide, to protest in the strongest possible terms against the violent response by your security forces to this week&rsquo;s many demonstrations in Nepal. I particularly object to the brutal repression against numerous trade union members and leaders in your country. 
 
Over the course of the past week, as your regime&rsquo;s oppression of the Nepalese democratization movement has become more aggressive, we have been informed of the arrests of many hundreds of protesters and democracy supporters, including scores of trade unionists. Most of these took part in protest actions against your government. Others did not even get that far as they were arrested in anticipation to prevent them from doing so. 
 
Estimates are that 2,300 people were arrested yesterday alone, with at least an additional 1,300 still held in detention since Monday. Amongst these detainees are many members and leaders of GEFONT, NTUC and DECONT, as well as of at least one of ICEM&rsquo;s affiliates in Nepal, the Nepal Independent Chemical and Iron Workers&rsquo; Union (NICIWU). 
 
Together with the wider international trade union community and hundreds of other organizations and countries from around the world, I am calling upon you to end the violence by your security forces in Nepal. In addition, all trade union leaders and members that have been arrested over the last few days, weeks and months must be released immediately. 
 
Yours sincerely, 
 
 
Fred Higgs 
General Secretary 
 
Cc: 
Mr. Ramesh Nath Pandey, Minister of Foreign Affairs 
Mr. Narayan S. Thapa, Ambassador of Nepal to the Benelux and European Countries - By Fax: 02-344.13.61

ICEM protest letter to King Gyanendra in Nepal

Se&ntilde;or Alvaro Uribe V&eacute;lez 
Presidente de la Rep&uacute;blica 
Palacio Nari&ntilde;o 
Carrera 8 No. 7-2 
Bogot&aacute; 
 
By Fax: ++57-1-337.58.90 and ++57-1-566.20.71 
 
 
Mr. President, 
 
I am writing on behalf of the 20 million workers worldwide of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions to express our horror and disgust at the brutal murder of brother Daniel Cortez Cortez, a member of Sintraelecol, ICEM affiliate in Colombia. 
 
Brother Cortez was assassinated at night in Puerto Parra, near Barrancabermeja, on Sunday April 2nd, reportedly by a group of paramilitary members. He was shot in the face and died instantly. Brother Cortez leaves behind a wife and four children. He had been working for 16 years at the Empresa Electrificadora de Santander and had been an active&nbsp;trade union member. 
 
His death is the latest expression of the fact that the seemingly endless series of human and trade union rights violations in Colombia has far from ended. Your country remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for trade unionists to do their work. On top of that, most murders of trade union members go uninvestigated and unpunished. 
 
As to the assassination of Daniel Cortez, a full and open investigation into this murder needs to be started as a matter of urgency. Those responsible for this hideous crime need to be brought to justice without delay. 
 
In addition to that, I repeat that it is up to the Colombian government to guarantee a safe working place for trade unionists. It is high time to deliver on earlier promises and provide effective protection for trade unionists in Colombia. 
 
Yours sincerely, 
 
Fred Higgs 
 
General Secretary 
ICEM 

CC: 
Francisco Santos, Colombian Vice-President, 
Jorge Alberto Uribe, Colombian Minister of Defence, 
Dr Carlos Franco, Head of the Presidential Human Rights Program 
Colombian Embassy in&nbsp;Brussels

ICEM letter to Colombia on murder of trade union member Daniel Cortez

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ICEM World Conference for the Rubber Industries 
6-7 April 2006 
Istanbul, Turkey 
The day before the opening of the ICEM World Conference for the Rubber Industry in Istanbul, US-based tyre company Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber announced its intention to close two European plants. Goodyear Dunlop is to end production at its Washington factory in Tyne and Wear, UK, with the loss of 585 jobs. A further 39 jobs could be lost in another company&rsquo;s plant in Wolverhampton, UK, which is a supplier of components to the Washington factory. 
 
Goodyear will also stop the production of bicycle tyres in its Polish factory in Debica with the loss of 320 jobs. 
 
Together with planned savings from other business units, Goodyear expects to cut a total of 1,500 jobs. 
 
The delegates at the ICEM world conference expressed serious concern about this plan. They fully support their sister trade unions in the UK and in Poland in their fight for the workplaces of their members. 
 
For a big multinational company like Goodyear, the use constant use of redundancies to try to cut costs is a very poor sign. A challenging market needs investment and R&amp;D activities, instead of plant closures all over the world. 
 
The ICEM and its affiliated trade unions strongly urge the management of Goodyear to show social responsibility and help the workers in both plants getting the chance to save the future of their families.

ICEM Rubber Conference Resolution - Support for the Workers Struggle in 2 European Goodyear plants

President Roh Moo-hyun 
1 Sejong-no, Jongno-ku, 
Seoul 110-820 
Republic of Korea 
 
By fax: +82-2-770.03.44&nbsp; 
By e-mail <a href="mailto:president@cwd.go.kr">president@cwd.go.kr</a> 
 
 
Dear Mr. President, 
 
I am writing, after having been informed by the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to protest against the ongoing trade union repression in your country of the members of the Korean Chemical and Textile Workers&rsquo; Federation (KCTF) at GS Caltex. 
 
The anti-union behaviour by GS Caltex started in 2004 when the company, with the help of the Korean police, aggressively retaliated against a strike that was organized by the workers at GS Caltex. The strike was the result of the company&rsquo;s decision to disregard a set of reasonable union demands, which were on issues such as a five-day, 40-hour work-week and the non-discrimination of contract workers. 
 
After the brutal suppression of the strike, GS Caltex continued to hit back at the union&rsquo;s members and leaders by selecting at the gate who could return and who could not. This also happened with the assistance of the police, who remained stationed inside the company for 52 days. GS Caltex also harassed families of workers and ended up dismissing almost all union officials, 30 in number. In addition, eight trade union leaders were arrested and sentenced to periods of two to three years in prison. A total of 650 other workers were disciplined with three-month suspensions from work. 
 
Since then, the company has refused to bargain in good faith with the workers, whose situation and future remains extremely insecure. I am calling upon your government to assist in ending the desperate situation of the KCTF members. GS Caltex needs to come to a fair and honest agreement with its workers and end its unfair labour practices. Also, the dismissed union leaders must be reinstated. 
 
Thanking you in advance for your kind cooperation 
 
 
Yours sincerely, 
 
 
(Name) 
(Title) 
(Union)

Model protest letter to Korean government

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Strong, last-minute arm-twisting by the US government apparently proved effective, as Costa Ricans went to the polls yesterday, 7 October, in a referendum on ratification of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the US. With over 90% of polling complete early on Monday, the &ldquo;yes&rdquo; vote has gained just over 50%, while those voting against tallied 47.6%. 
 
Some 60% of Costa Rica&rsquo;s 2.6 million voters turned out for Sunday&rsquo;s balloting. A 40% turnout was needed to make the plebiscite legally binding. Costa Rica was the only one of six Latin countries to put ratification of CAFTA before voters. Earlier, the governments of the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua ratified CAFTA, which will open trading markets between the countries and the US. 
 
On Saturday, the Bush administration issued a terse warning to Costa Rica&rsquo;s citizens, stating that if ratification did not occur, it would not extend existing preferential tariffs on certain goods traded between the two countries. The US government also said under no circumstances would it re-negotiate the trade agreement with Costa Rica.
<img height="115" alt="" src="" width="250" />
In polls taken as late as the middle of last week, proponents of a &ldquo;no&rdquo; vote, led by unions and others under the banner &ldquo;Patriotic Movement Against FTA and US,&rdquo; were leading in polls, with upwards of 55% of Costa Ricans saying they would reject the plan. The opponents, including national labour centres Central del Movimiento de Trabajadores Costarricenses (CMTC) and the Confederaci&oacute;n de Trabajadores Rerum Navarum (CTRN), have been deeply suspicious of the US-prescribed trade and privatisation agreement. 
 
Specifically, they expressed concern over a flood of cheap US food products entering the country. Opponents also cited privatisation of Costa Rica&rsquo;s state-run telecommunications company, the country&rsquo;s insurance services, and its agriculture industry. 
 
In the waning days of the campaign, however, besides the campaign interference by the US government, President Oscar Arias &ndash; a proponent &ndash; termed a &ldquo;no&rdquo; vote as &ldquo;collective suicide.&rdquo; Two month&rsquo;s before Sunday&rsquo;s vote, a high-level memorandum from top aides of Arias was leaked that outlined a dirty tricks campaign against the &ldquo;no&rdquo; faction. The memo caused the temporary resignation of Second Vice President and Planning Minister Kevin Casas.

Costa Rica Narrowly Passes Free Trade Pact in 7 October Balloting

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Three weeks after suspending a scheduled 12 September strike, 2,000 copper mining and smelting workers in Peru downed tools on 2 October in an indefinite strike. The strike, against Grupo M&eacute;xico&rsquo;s Southern Copper Corporation, came after the mining and metals federation &ndash; ICEM affiliate FNTMMSP &ndash; halted strike action after miners voted on 11 September to give government mediated talks a chance to work. 
 
Following the start of last week&rsquo;s strike, the FNTMMSP called on Labour Minister Susana Pinilla to quicken the dialogue in order to find solutions to unresolved issues. FNTMMSP will mobilise toward a national strike across the mining sector on 5 November unless issues get resolved at Southern Copper and other mining enterprises.
<img height="124" alt="" src="" width="130" />
The strike by Peruvian miners at troubled Grupo M&eacute;xico instantly raised copper prices nearly 1% on world markets. The strike occurred at Southern Copper&rsquo;s Toquepala and Cuajure mines, and at its Ilo smelter. Workers are demanding a fair pay package of 11%, while Grupo M&eacute;xico seeks longer shifts and proposes a pay offer of less than half of what the union seeks. The company predicts a strike of any duration will cause 2007 production losses to exceed 10%. Southern Copper produces 370,000 tonnes of copper annually from its Peruvian operations. 
 
Southern Copper&rsquo;s miners took short strike actions in May and June of this year. The company&rsquo;s chief attack has been to file charges with the government claiming the strikes are illegal. 
<img height="61" src="" width="100" alt="" />
Grupo M&eacute;xico is also fighting miners in Mexico. Since 30 July, Mexican mining and metals union, SNTMMRM, has been striking three operations of the company, including the Cananea copper mine in northern Mexico, near the US border. The other two mines are a silver, lead, and zinc mine, near Taxco in Guerrero state, and the San Mart&iacute;n zinc mine in Zacatecas. 
 
Mexican miners are striking over demands for collective agreements, and better health and safety conditions. Grupo M&eacute;xico has responded by announcing mine closures, citing depletion of resources, and seeking to declare the strikes illegal.

Grupo Mexico’s Miners in Peru Strike for Fair Pay

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ICEM North American affiliate United Steelworkers (USW) issued a public letter to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe last week warning that a paramilitary group called the &ldquo;Black Eagles&rdquo; has recently threatened leaders of food and beverage union SINALTRAINAL in the area of Bucaramanga, Santander state, with death. 
 
The USW said the group stated they would &ldquo;bury the union members and their families in a mass grave on Christmas Day if they do not cease their union activities and leave the area.&rdquo; The US-based union specifically named SINALTRAINAL leaders Javier Correa, Luis Eduardo Garcia, and Jose Domingo Florez as the recipients of the death threats.
<img height="174" src="" width="150" alt="" />
USW President Leo Gerard
In the USW letter to Uribe, President Leo Gerard writes of a specific incident related to Jose Florez on 27 September. He says the son of the union leader was picked up by armed men, thrown into a van, beaten, and then released with the message they would not stop until Florez&rsquo;s father was dismembered. 
 
Gerard&rsquo;s letter to Uribe reminded the Colombia President that the country leads the world in the number of trade unionists who are ruthlessly killed each year. The South American country, Gerard wrote, &ldquo;represents 54% of all trade union killings world-wide. And so far in 2007, the official Colombian government figure of trade union leaders killed is 23.&rdquo; 
 
Gerard added, &ldquo;We are very concerned about this situation, especially as impunity in Colombia for the slaying of trade unionists remains at over 98%.&rdquo;
<img height="92" alt="" src="" width="200" />
Meanwhile, the USW and the US-based Human Rights Fund have appealed a decision by a US district court in the state of Alabama against Drummond Coal, a company that operates in Colombia and the US. The civil suit is on behalf of surviving family members of trade union leaders of Sintramienerg&eacute;tica. The USW believes these leaders were murdered in 2001 by paramilitary forces, with the complicity of the American coal company. 
 
In July 2007, a federal district court in Alabama denied testimony from relevant witnesses to the murders of three trade union leaders and ruled Drummond not guilty with connection to the killings. The USW and Human Rights Watch have now appealed that ruling to a US Federal Circuit Court of Appeals bench in Atlanta, Georgia. 
 
The case was filed on behalf of family members of Valmore Lacarno, Victor Oracasita, and Gustavo Soler. The case falls under the US Alien Tort Claims Act, which allows foreign citizens to file financial damage lawsuits in US courtrooms against American companies in crimes committed outside the US. The ICEM is aiding the USW in bringing the correct and necessary testimony to this set of grizzly killings in Colombia to the US justice system.

Steelworkers Issue Immediate and Specific Warning to Colombia on Death Threats to Union Leaders

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
This week, on 10-11 October, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, RENGO, will hold its Congress in Tokyo, and high on the agenda is an action plan featuring the strengthening of wages, benefits, and rights for non-regular workers. This plan means both RENGO and Japanese trade union federation UI Zensen have now prioritised that part-time and limited-term workers receive equal treatment in Japan&rsquo;s social-work agenda.
<img height="156" alt="" src="" width="110" />
Rengo is highlighting attention for temporary employees, part-time staff, and contract and agency workers in two-year action policies on both Equality and Work-Life Balance. The improvement of working conditions for such workers is listed as a major goal, and this comes from RENGO&rsquo;s already existing Joint Actions with Part-Time Workers Committee.
The federation will issue a Declaration on Reforming Working Patterns and follow that statement up with a multi-faceted campaign. That campaign will ensure, among other things, a liveable wage for temporary and part-time workers. As one of three focal points for work in the 2008-2009 period, &ldquo;RENGO will give top priority to strengthening support for and collaboration with non-regular workers and employees at smaller companies, and will work with affiliates and local RENGOs to reform working patterns with a view to guaranteeing the rights of all workers and improving their working conditions.&rdquo; 
<img height="51" alt="" src="" width="206" />&nbsp;&nbsp;
&nbsp;<img height="68" alt="" src="" width="180" />
In the other two focal points, RENGO&rsquo;s action policies state that the confederation and its affiliates at unionised enterprises will resist unreasonable &ldquo;factors of society, and demand social responsibility&rdquo; from companies and employers&rsquo; associations; and that Rengo will engage in total efforts to promote campaigns that are rooted in local communities, which will vitalise these communities and build greater trust by local people of the trade union movement.
In the year 2001&rsquo;s set of national bargaining, RENGO first started including hourly wage increases for temporary and part-time workers, and last year the union engaged in joint shunto negotiations with part-time workers. The confederation reports that 251 affiliated labour unions realised hourly wage gains for part-time workers last year.
<img height="92" alt="" src="" width="200" />
The action plan for 2008-2009 includes establishment of a labour consultation centre at RENGO headquarters, in which pay-raise negotiations for non-regular workers will be coordinated, and the centre will fully cooperate with unions that represent non-regular workers employed under temporary or fixed-term contracts. The centre will also actively utilise the internet as a mutual aid service for non-regular workers, and will open consultation channels for foreign workers employed in Japan. 
 
Japanese unions are acutely aware that the number of workers recruited for full-time employment has decreased, while recruitment of temp staff and part-time workers has dramatically increased. That has been a major reason why, last year, the average annual income of company employees declined for the ninth consecutive year in Japan.

RENGO Prioritises Increased Rights for Temporary Workers in Japan

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Even though none of the 3,200 miners trapped for up to 38 hours last week at Harmony Gold&rsquo;s Elandsrand mine died, the near catastrophe re-emphasises the need for beefed up safety measures in the world&rsquo;s mining industry. 
 
The miners, members of ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), became trapped after a 15-metre piece of steel pipe from a compressed air chamber exploded, and dropped 2.2 kilometres down an elevator shaft. The steel pipe severed electrical cables and shattered steelwork connected to the mine&rsquo;s main elevator.
Rescue commenced through a smaller ventilation shaft that is also used to lift rock and waste from the mine. Rescue teams placed a cage in that shaft and it was able to free 75 miners each half-hour. NUM dispatched shop stewards into the deep shafts in order to calm miners and to bring them bread and water. 
<img height="60" src="" width="100" alt="" />
But the accident again underscores the necessity for better mine safety techniques at a time of climbing prices and rapid extraction practices of natural resources. Harmony purchased the 30-year-old Elandsrand mine and an adjoining gold mine from AngloGold Ashanti in 2001, at a time when production had dropped. Harmony saw the potential to mine even deep into the earth, and planned a new mine under the existing one that the company expects to complete by 2011. 
 
NUM members were trapped some 2,200 metres below the ground. Gold mines in South Africa are particular deep, and gold mining in the country is labour intensive. As higher commodity prices take hold, mining companies forge deeper underground, making the technical challenges greater and the safety costs higher. The deeper the mines go, the greater the likelihood of seismic activity. This puts miners at tremendous risk. 
 
The NUM is convinced that lack of maintenance, coupled with the continuous, 24-hour mining operations now being implemented across South Africa&rsquo;s mining industry, is to blame for this equipment failure at Elandsrand.
&nbsp;<img height="148" alt="" src="" width="120" />
NUM President Senzeni Zokwana&nbsp; 

&ldquo;We suspect negligence. Because of continuous operations there is not time to make adequate checks,&rdquo; said NUM President Senzeni Zokwana, who also is President of the ICEM. &ldquo;Our members are dying, and will continue to die, until we change the culture of mining.&rdquo; 
 
The lesson from last week&rsquo;s Elandsrand mine, Zokwana told an American broadcast network, &ldquo;is that we need to put safety number one in planning, and make sure that at all times people can be saved quickly.&rdquo; Following the early morning accident on 3 October that trapped 3,000 men and 200 women at Elandsrand, Harmony Gold at first predicted rescue efforts would be completed by late that afternoon. It was not until 8 PM on 4 October when the last of the 3,200 came up the emergency shaft. 
 
&ldquo;We are very much concerned,&rdquo; said Zokwana. &ldquo;We believe that this should be a call to the industry that secondary exits underground be mandated.&rdquo; 
<img height="95" alt="" src="" width="100" />
NUM&rsquo;s chairperson of Health and Safety, Peter Bailey, repeated the need for mining houses to changes focus. &ldquo;When it comes to production targets, the companies make no mistakes in meeting them,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But when it comes to safety, we hear rhetoric and philosophy.&rdquo; 
 
In a 5 October Wall Street Journal article on the Elandsrand near disaster, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said, &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a rush into the investment of mining in general,&rdquo; adding that quick development is difficult to manage, even for companies and countries with good safety records. 
 
In South Africa, the world&rsquo;s biggest producer of precious minerals, mining deaths so far in 2007 far outpace those of preceding years. The current death toll makes a 2003 promise by the industry of achieving zero workplace deaths by 2013 ring hollow. 
 
Only five days before Harmony&rsquo;s accident, four miners of AngloGold were killed due to a rock fall caused by seismic activity in the depths of the Mponeng mine, which is near the Elandsrand mine. And just yesterday, 7 October, the bodies of 23 miners, who were illegally mining a closed Harmony Gold shaft inside the Helena mine in Free State province, were pulled from deep underground. They perished after a fire ignited on 18 September. Harmony had been mining other shafts of the Helena mine. 
 
This past summer, the NUM called for an urgent tripartite meeting to resuscitate South Africa&rsquo;s Mining Health and Safety Summit in order to address the many current deficiencies in mine safety. Then, the NUM said mining houses must begin to &ldquo;walk the talk&rdquo; when it comes to implementing safe practices. In South Africa, following last week&rsquo;s Elandsrand accident near Carletonville along the country&rsquo;s gold belt, the time for action with a new culture, backed by capital improvements to health and safety techniques, has now fully risen to the surface.

Near Disaster at Harmony’s Elandsrand Gold Mine in South Africa Repeats Safety Call

<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
This is the 25th Issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin. 
 
There is no Time to Celebrate! 
For more than two years we have tried to give practical, timely and accurate information from a number of relevant sources. Too little feedback has reached us from our affiliates. Many of them are engaged in the fight against HIV/AIDS. If we do not know about their activities, we cannot report on them and others cannot benefit from new initiatives and ideas. 
 
Again, we make an appeal to send information on new agreements, campaigns and educational activities to <a href="mailto:hiv.aids@icem.org">hiv.aids@icem.org</a>. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome. 
 
There is certainly no time to celebrate: according to UNAIDS, each day still more than 8,000 people die of AIDS; almost 12,000 get newly infected with the deadly virus, many of them young people, in some regions more than half of them girls and women. Each day, 1,800 children become infected &ndash; the vast majority of them as newborns through mother-to-child transmission. 
<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
World AIDS Day, 1 December 
 
Leadership is the theme for World AIDS Day 2007. The ongoing campaign slogan of the World AIDS Campaign is &ldquo;Stop AIDS &ndash; Keep the Promise&rdquo;. 
 
Unions can demonstrate leadership at every level &ndash; in the workplace, in their own governing bodies, in women&rsquo;s committees, in health and safety committees, in negotiations with companies, in the community and at the national policy level. 
 
Any union member, shop steward, union official, committee member, gender representative who takes action on HIV/AIDS is a leader in the fight against the deadly disease. 
ICEM calls on its affiliates to take the lead in campaigning on World AIDS Day, 1 December. 
Before the end of October, affiliates will receive campaign material. 
<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
ICEM Affiliates in C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire and Namibia 
 
The HIV/AIDS Coordinator for the three affiliates in C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire, Charlotte Nguessan, is particularly active. In addition to training workplace representatives, she has coordinated the writing of a proposal on HIV/AIDS workplace interventions, which was submitted to Partners against AIDS in August. 
 
Charlotte was also appointed to the working group for the Round 7 proposal to the Global Fund. 
 
In Namibia, the first two courses (out of three) for the training of VCT counsellors were completed in the Oranjemund region and at Okorusu Flourspar mining. The Mine Workers&rsquo; Union of Namibia makes sure the funds go a long way: instead of the usual 5 to 8 unionists, as in most&nbsp;other countries, it aims to train more than 20. 
<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
Global Fund: Record Amount in New Grants Recommended for Round 7 
 
Round 7 applicants to the Global Fund submitted fewer, but bigger and better, proposals than applicants in all previous rounds. 
 
The Global Fund's Technical Review Panel (TRP) has reviewed the 150 eligible Round 7 proposals that were submitted to the Fund, and has recommended that the board approve 73 of them. The grants recommended for approval will cost a total of $1,112 million over two years. 
This is a record amount: in the six previous rounds, the two-year value of approved grants ranged from $571 million to $968 million. (The full duration of a grant is five years. After the first two years, a review takes place to decide about the continuation of a grant). 
 
The percentage of proposals recommended for approval was also a record &ndash; 49%, up from an average of 38% over the previous rounds. On the other hand, the number of eligible proposals submitted in R7, at 150, was the lowest ever. 
 
The TRP's recommendations regarding Round 7 will be reviewed and voted on by the Board of the Global Fund at its next meeting on November 12-13. (In previous rounds, the board has always followed the TRP's advice regarding which proposals to approve.) 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer Issue 77, 30 September 2007. GFO is a free service of Aidspan <a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>. To receive GFO, send an email to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>) 
<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
Global Fund: Donor Governments Pledge Record Amounts 
 
Donors are expected to give the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at least $9.7 billion over the next three years, 57% more than they gave over the past three years. The pledges made at the Global Fund Replenishment Meeting in Berlin constituted the largest single financing exercise for a&nbsp;health issue that has ever taken place. 
 
Some highlights of the pledges: 
 
&bull; The three countries that pledged the most for 2008-10 were USA (USD 2,172 million), France (USD 1,274 million) and the UK (USD 729 million). 
&bull; The three countries that pledged the largest percentage of their Gross National Income (GNI) were Norway (0.087%), Ireland (0.076%) and Sweden (0.075%). 
&bull; The country that pledged the largest amount per capita was the Netherlands. 
&bull; The three developed countries that pledged the smallest percentage of their GNI were Japan, Finland and Switzerland (0.004% each). 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer Issue 77, 30 September 2007. GFO is a free service of Aidspan <a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>. To receive GFO, send an email to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>) 
<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
ICAAP Held in Colombo 
 
&ldquo;Waves of Change - Waves of Hope&rdquo; was the theme of the International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 19 to 23 August, 2007. The conference brought together 2,500 delegates from 70 countries including politicians, officials, community workers, medical professionals, academics, journalists, trade union leaders and people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) to share knowledge and devise new strategies to deal with the disease. 
 
The HIV epidemic in Asia and the Pacific remains diverse. A number of countries have taken decisive action to deliver effective and comprehensive AIDS programmes. However, the overall response in the region is still not keeping up with the pace and expanding reach of the epidemic. Leadership at various levels is still not adequately aware of the consequences of an escalating pandemic and its impact, not only on public health, but also on the socio-economic wellbeing of the people of the region. 
 
(Source: adapted from the ITF HIV/AIDS Update 28, 1 September) 
<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
Cambodia: Prevalence Rate Down 
 
Three international donors have decided to reduce aid for AIDS prevention to Cambodia as the country has reportedly achieved satisfactory progress. 
 
The Global Fund, DFID and USAID will cut funds targeted at reducing the transmission of HIV/AIDS in the country as nationwide infection rates have declined from 3.3% in the 1990s to 0.9% in 2006. 
 
The reduction of aid does not mean the end of prevention activities. It is a recognition of the fact that the Government of Cambodia has enough capacity to carry on the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS. For example, the number of voluntary confidential counselling and testing centres increased from 150 in 2005 to 190 this year. 
 
(Source: xinhuanet, 20 September) 
<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
India: Case Studies on Corporate Response to HIV/AIDS 
 
A recent World Bank paper discusses the role of business in the fight against HIV/AIDS in India, with particular focus on the private sector. The report highlights interventions by five Indian companies (Reliance Industries Ltd, Transport Corporation of India Ltd, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd, DCM Shiram Consolidated Ltd and Hindustan Lever Ltd) ranging from advocacy and education to prevention and treatment. 
 
The report argues that because a large share of the country&rsquo;s HIV-positive population are employed by Indian industry, businesses can gain from early and decisive action to prevent HIV and AIDS. The paper also shows the advantages businesses bring to the fight against the pandemic and how the Indian government supports companies involved in HIV/AIDS interventions. 
 
(Source: Eldis Corporate Responsibility Reporter, 6 September <a href="http://www.eldis.org/csr">www.eldis.org/csr</a>. Eldis is a service of the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex)
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South Africa: Setback for New AIDS Policy 
 
The new AIDS policy in South Africa suffered a severe setback when the Deputy Minister of Health, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge was forced to resign in August. 
During the long sick leave of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, the Deputy Minister had worked for a turn-around in the government&rsquo;s AIDS policy, advocating a massive increase in antiretroviral treatment. This had been delayed for years by the Health Minister who encouraged people living with HIV/AIDS to treat it with garlic, beetroot and olive oil. 
 
(Source: various newspaper reports) 
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News from the Global Union Programme and Global Union Federations 
 
The ICEM is represented on the Steering Committee of the Global Union AIDS Programme. The last meeting took place in Geneva on 3 October. Among other, the meeting discussed a closer engagement of Global Unions with the Global Fund and an initiative to cooperate with the World Bank. A meeting will take place in Washington in December involving the mining, transport, health and education sectors. 
 
In its most recent HIV/AIDS updates (nos. 26, 27, 28 and 29 of 1 and 15 August and 1 and 15 September) the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">www.itfglobal.org</a> reports, among other, on an agreement between the union and the employers on an HIV/AIDS policy for the railway industry in Zimbabwe; how low levels of awareness and prevalent social stigma contribute to the spread of the disease in Pakistan. 
The Nigerian Government has approved a policy providing guidelines that aim to assist in the establishment of workplace HIV/AIDS policies in the formal sectors, as well as in the informal economy.

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