Mayor announces funding for new permanent HIV/AIDS memorial to remember lives lost and tackle discrimination
- Mayor commits funding from the Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm towards London’s first HIV/AIDS permanent memorial
- City Hall becomes founding member of Fast-Track Cities London’s new HIV anti-stigma charter, HIV Confident to tackle stigma and discrimination in the workplace
This World AIDS Day, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced new £130,000 funding from the Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm towards London’s first HIV/AIDS permanent memorial.
The new memorial will highlight the impact of HIV/AIDS on the lives of the communities most affected and will act as a reminder that the fight to end AIDS, and the stigma of HIV and AIDS worldwide continues, and will serve as an education resource for current and future generations.
The artist commissioning process for the new memorial is underway and the new memorial will be located in Camden near the first dedicated HIV/AIDS hospital ward in the UK. The commission has worked closely with AIDS Memory UK, the charity driving the memorial project, over the past two years and the memorial will be in place by 2026.
The powerful message of solidarity will help address the stigma and discrimination faced by many who live with HIV, as the Mayor works towards building a better, healthier, more equitable city for all Londoners.
London is now the world-leading city for HIV diagnosis and treatment, with 96 per cent of people with HIV diagnosed, 98 per cent of whom are on treatment and 99 per cent of those with the HIV virus suppressed.
Supporting those living with the virus has been a key part of the Mayor’s Health Inequalities Strategy and ongoing action to build a safer London for all. This week the Mayor signed City Hall up as the founding member of Fast-Track Cities, London’s new HIV Confident Charter to tackle stigma and discrimination in the workplace.
The charter has been developed in partnership with the HIV voluntary sector, people affected by HIV, the NHS, London Councils and public health organisations. The HIV Confident charter and accompanying ambassadors programme will ensure Londoners living with HIV can access services, jobs and feel included in society without fear of discrimination.
It commits City Hall to provide training for staff members, HIV friendly workplace policies, as well as tools to report discrimination. It also means that City Hall will continue to work in partnership with the wider community to expand the reach and impact of the charter, and the Mayor is encouraging other organisations to follow suit and sign up.1
The Ambassadors programme, delivered in partnership with Terrence Higgins Trust, will ensure that the faces, voices and lived experiences of people living with HIV fully inform the charter. This will help to tackle internalised stigma for people living with HIV, and societal stigma and discrimination with proven, community-informed methods.
The action by the Mayor comes as figures2 show that three in four people living with HIV in the UK have reported experiening stigma or discrimination as a result of their diagnosis, and more than 40 per cent of those with a diagnosis live in London. Research from Fast Track Cities and National AIDS Trust also found that only one third of Londoners say they have sympathy for people living with HIV, regardless of how they acquired it. This has a detrimental effect on health outcomes, as it can prevent people from getting tested and treated.
The Mayor is committed to building a city that welcomes and respects people living with HIV, and this latest move comes as London gets ever closer to achieving the UN development goal of zero HIV transmissions by 2030, having already become the first global city to exceed the UNAIDS 2025 target.
Later today, representatives from AIDS Memory UK, Camden Council, the Mayor’s Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm and Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries Justine Simons will take part in the annual vigil to remember those who have died and the communities impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The vigil is being held at the proposed site for London’s first HIV/AIDS permanent memorial.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “World AIDS Day is a time to remember and honour all those who have been lost to HIV/AIDS related illness, and to unite everyone in our ongoing battle against the virus and the stigma that too frequently comes with it.
“We have come a long way in addressing those taboos and City Hall is once again leading the way in tackling health inequalities by signing the HIV Confident charter.
“I am proud that we are helping to fund the first permanent HIV/AIDS memorial in London. This powerful message of solidarity will help address the stigma and discrimination faced by many who live with HIV, as we work towards building a better, healthier, more equitable city for all Londoners.”
Founder and CEO of AIDS Memory UK, Ash Kotak, said: “One question I am often asked is “why do we need The AIDS Memorial in London?” The reasons are many but it starts with a philosophy and a vision... What London do we want? And it asks questions of justice; of cruel deaths; and of survival; of courage and activism; about ending HIV transmissions and AIDS deaths too; and how we as human beings, value the lives and experiences of those marginalised in society.
“For over 40 years, HIV stigma has continued as well as the associated abuse due to our race, our gender, our sexuality, our religion, our nationality; the way we look, our values; our beliefs and our virus. We lost so many; saw so much hate; felt too much pain and loneliness; rejection; alienation… We will and cannot forget.”
Richard Angell, Chief Executive of Terrence Higgins Trust, said: “This is about putting the stories of people living with HIV at the heart of London’s public services and corporate giants. Our brilliant ambassadors will not only be communicating the up-to-date facts about HIV, but really changing hearts and minds. Currently people living with HIV still face unacceptably high levels of stigma, including rejection on dating apps, isolation in their communities and completely unnecessary double gloving in hospitals. We won’t let this continue on our watch and stigma must be smashed. London’s making great strides to end new HIV cases by 2030 and we can’t leave anyone behind.”
Regional Public Health Director for London and Co-Chair of the London HIV Fast Track Cities Initiative, Professor Kevin Fenton CBE, echoes these sentiments, saying: "Ending HIV transmission in London requires a sustained focus on delivering what we know works to those in need, in order to control the spread of the infection including expanded HIV testing, access to high quality treatment and care, and easy access to HIV PreP (pre-exposure prophylaxis).
“It also requires us to tackle the social and structural barriers to HIV care which includes HIV stigma and discrimination. The 'HIV Confident' Charter Mark represents a significant step towards creating a world in which everyone feels safe and supported, irrespective of their HIV status."
Chief Executive at National AIDS Trust, Deborah Gold, said: “We’re incredibly proud to be working with our partners to develop HIV Confident and we’re thrilled the Mayor of London has committed to the Greater London Authority becoming a founder member. Public and commercial services have a key role to play in tackling societal HIV stigma and improving the day to day experiences and wellbeing of people living with HIV.
“Members of HIV Confident charter mark will actively strive to educate their employees and put in place measures that ensure no one experiences HIV stigma when accessing their service or working for them. We want people living with HIV to be confident in any place that displays the HIV Confident logo.
“The founding members of HIV Confident have today made a commitment to tackle HIV stigma in their organisations. By joining at the start of the journey, they form part of the foundation for a national programme that will make a tangible difference to the lives of people living with HIV and the fight against HIV stigma.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
- For more information about the HIV Confident charter, including how to sign up, please visit https://www.nat.org.uk/anti-stigma-hiv-charter#:~:text=Increase%20knowledge%20about%20HIV%20and,they%20experience%20in%20an%20organisation.
- New data exposes shocking stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV | Terrence Higgins Trust (tht.org.uk)
- July 2021, HIV: The London Report https://fasttrackcities.london/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/21033-NAT-London-Report-013S.pdf
- The Fast-Track Cities initiative is a global partnership between cities and municipalities around the world and four core partners – the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and the City of Paris.
- The Mayor has designated London as a Fast-Track City by signing the Paris Declaration on Fast-Track Cities, which outlines a set of commitments to achieve the initiative's objectives. Initially heavily focused on the 90-90-90 targets, the Paris Declaration was recently updated to establish attainment of the three 90 targets as the starting point on a trajectory towards getting to zero new HIV infections and zero AIDS-related deaths. https://www.fast-trackcities.org/sites/default/files/Paris%20Declaration%204.0%20-%2013%20April%202021.pdf
- London is already the world-leading city for HIV diagnosis and treatment, with 96 per cent of people with HIV diagnosed, 98 per cent of whom are on treatment and 99 per cent of those with the HIV virus suppressed. HIV opt out testing is available in all emergency wards across London and the mayor is funding projects to get to zero new cases of HIV, preventable deaths and stigma by 2030.
- For more information about Fast Track Cities, please visit https://www.fast-trackcities.org/
- The Mayor’s commitment to a new permanent HIV/AIDS memorial in London follows on from his announcement during the summer that five new rainbow plaques will be installed across our capital in honour of significant people, places and moments in LGBTQI+ history, funded by Untold Stories as part of my Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm. For more information about the Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm, please visit https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/arts-and-culture/commission-diversity-public-realm
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