Structural Inequality in HIV/AIDS at the Global and National Level,
April 2003

This conference, sponsored by the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA), CIRA's Law, Policy and Ethics Core, and the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law and Ethics (YJHPLE) brings together at Yale University, experts from the United States and abroad to discuss critical issues in the risk for, transmission and treatment of, and response to HIV/AIDS. The conference features panels focused on three different dimensions of the global pandemic's unequal distribution of burden.

12:45 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Welcoming Remarks

1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Global Resource Allocation: Mobilizing Resources to Fight HIV/AIDS

In a context of global inequality, one approach to alleviating the impact of HIV/AIDS in poor nations has been to develop funds that can provide capital investment to these countries necessary to scale-up their existing efforts to address HIV/AIDS and to establish a foundation on which to sustain future programs. The Global Fund, a public-private partnership, represents one such fund. This panel will consider a number of questions raised by this approach to alleviating the impact of HIV/AIDS in poor nations:

• Stephen Lewis (United Nations)
  "The Global Fund: Does it Have a Future?"
• John Stover (Futures Group)
  "How National Governments Determine the Allocation of Funds for HIV/AIDS Programs"
• Stuart Flavell (Global Network of People Living with AIDS)
  "AIDS: Challenging the Development Status-Quo"
• Judith Cornell (International HIV/AIDS Alliance)
  "The Role and Influence of Civil Society Organizations in Resource Allocation for HIV/AIDS"
• Panel Chair: Michael Merson (CIRA)

2:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.

2:45 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

It is frequently argued that AIDS is a human rights issue and that efforts to promote HIV prevention and treatment goals require the promotion of human rights. This goal can be further complicated by the tremendous stigma faced by those living with HIV/AIDS or at risk for becoming infected. This panel will consider human rights and stigma issues that arise when HIV/AIDS is framed as a human rights issue, including:

• Zita Lazzarini (University of Connecticut, Division of Medical Humanities, Health Law and Ethics)
  "Using a Legal or Human Rights Framework as a Tool in the AIDS Epidemic"
• Joanne Csete (Human Rights Watch)
  "Inequity Meets Injustice: Putting Human Rights on the AIDS Agenda and Vice Versa"
• Jon Willis (Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, Latrobe University)
  "The Worst of all Possible Worlds: Gay Indigenous Australians Living with HIV"
• Panel Chair: Robert Levine (CIRA)

4:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.

4:15 p.m. - 5:45 p.m.

While there is considerable attention paid to global inequality in the distribution and impact of HIV/AIDS, there is a similar pattern within the United States, with communities of color and the poor more likely to be infected with HIV and less likely to receive care than whites and the well-to-do. This panel will consider some of the questions raised by persistent disparities in HIV/AIDS within the US:

• Cornelius Baker (Whitman Walker Clinic)
  "Power Dynamics: Impact on the Response to the HIV Epidemic"
• Samuel Bozzette (RAND Corporation)
  "Disparities in Care Across Diverse Populations in the United States: Insights from the HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study (HCSUS)"
• George Ayala (AIDS Project Los Angeles)
  "Social Discrimination and Health: The Case of Latino Gay Men and HIV"
• Mindy Fullilove (Columbia University)
  "Long-term Consequences of African American Dispossession"
• Panel Chair: Harlon Dalton (CIRA)

5:45 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.