No Excuses: A Living Experience of the Struggle for Rights

PLRI partner Meena Seshu gave the prestigious Jonathan Mann Memorial Lecture at the 2010 International AIDS Conference.

Meena reflects on the approach that her organisation SANGRAM has used to support the work of VAMP the collective of women in sex work.

She introduces SANGRAM’s Bill of Rights which sets out guidelines for programming interventions around HIV and AIDS:

1. People have a right to be approached with humility and respect.
2. People have the right to say YES or NO to things that concern them.
3. People have the right to reject harmful social norms.
4. People have the right to stand up to and change the balance of power.
5. People have the right not to be “rescued” by the outsiders who neither understand nor respect them.
6. People have the right to exist how they want to exist

There are a number of speakers before Meena who speaks about 1 hour into the video.