IRELAND: International non-governmental organisations working on HIV/AIDS programmes have joined to pass a declaration on the epidemic's impact on prisons.
They claim that ministers from 55 countries attending the EU meeting in Dublin on HIV have completely ignored the issue.
The NGO declaration, Prison Health is Public Health, was described as a "historic document" by Mr Rick Lines, executive director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust. The declaration was endorsed by 80 NGO groupings working in more than 20 countries throughout Europe and Central Asia, he told a press conference.
"HIV/AIDS is a serious problem for prison populations across Europe and Central Asia," he stated. "In most countries, rates of HIV infection are many times higher amongst prisoners than amongst the population outside prisons."
