The conference has drawn controversy from AIDS activists because of U.S. restrictions banning sex workers and drug users. The Obama administration has lifted a 20-year-old ban that prevented people infected with HIV from entering the country, but sex workers and drug users are still barred unless they can obtain a waiver. At a “satellite” session with sex workers from other countries, Miriam Edwards of the Guyana Sex Workers called for broader acceptance of sex work.

Miriam Edwards: “We are a part of the general population. We need people to accept sex workers as the general population and stop segregating them as different. Sex workers are human beings, and they must be accepted. If not, we will never get to zero on HIV.”