The « Paris Community Declaration » was one of the highlights of the IAS 2017 conference. This initiative was presented at a press conference and as part of the official opening session of the Conference. It puts the key populations at the heart of the HIV response, their rights being taken into account. This community engagement, Yves Yomb, leads him to Alternative Cameroon, association whose mission is to defend the rights of sexual minorities. Yves was one of the speakers at the closing session of the Paris HIV Science Conference. In his speech, he came back on his journey, his commitment and the importance of taking into account key populations to really end the epidemic.
Good evening everybody.
My name is Yves and I am gay. I am from Cameroon. Although my country continues to discriminate against gay people and puts us in jail, the situation is improving. This change is from the support of amFAR, Sidaction and Aides. Without their initial support, the fight for LGBT rights and against AIDS could have been lost. I want to thank you for believing in us.
I also want to thank international organisations like the Global Fund and PEPFAR, and bilateral donor countries contributing to Cameroon, for funding advocacy, human rights, and research that are helping us win the fight against AIDS. Without PEPFAR, we would not have data on the prevalence of HIV amongst key populations; in particular men who have sex with men and female sex workers. This knowledge has helped us advocate for treatment and support services for those who are most in need. Also important is support from the Global Fund that provided us with ART, which has saved many lives. Without this support, I would not be standing here today. Thank you.
I have been living with HIV for 10 years. I want to share with you our work at “Alternatives Cameroun”. We are involved in advocacy to improve the right to health of LGBT in Cameroon. To understand the context of our work, let me describe to you what it is like to be gay in my country. Still today in Cameroon, people think that the decline of society is caused by homosexuality. Consider the infamous affair of 2005 when the media published a list of famous people supposed to be homosexuals and described them as being responsible for all the evils in society. How could I talk about my sexuality in this setting? Who could I talk to?
It was at this time, that we created a solidarity network which gave another dimension to homosexuality than homophobia. For the first time in our lives, we dared to be ourselves. We shared information, offered each other support and benefited from help that we had learned never to expect. This was the beginning of the organisation “Alternatives Cameroun” whose mission is to defend the rights of sexual minorities; and this was also the beginning of my commitment to the community. Read more via Paris Community Declaration