One year after adopting a new Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Ending Inequality and Towards Ending AIDS by 2030, UN member states have stressed the need to work together to accelerate implementation progress.
Prior to the meeting, the UN Secretary-General issued a report entitled Tackling Inequalities to End the AIDS Pandemic on the Implementation of the HIV / AIDS Political Declaration. The report outlines how inequality and underinvestment “leave the world dangerously unprepared to deal with today’s and tomorrow’s pandemics.”
The AIDS pandemic is responsible for more than 13,000 deaths each week.
Data from the Joint United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS (UNAIDS) show that HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths are not declining rapidly enough to end the 2030 pandemic as it unfolds. compromise.
The Secretary-General’s report highlights solutions that include (a) HIV prevention and social facilitation; (b) community-led responses; (c) equitable access to medicines, vaccines and health technologies; (d) sustainable funding for the AIDS response and the prevention, preparedness and response to a wider pandemic; (e) people-centered data systems and (f) strengthening global partnerships.
The UN Secretary-General’s statement to the General Assembly, made by Chief of Staff Courtenay Rattray, outlined three immediate steps to reverse current trends and get back on track. “First, we need to address cross-cutting inequalities, discrimination, and the marginalization of entire communities, which are often aggravated by punitive laws, policies, and practices.” He called for policy reforms to reduce the HIV risk of marginalized communities, such as sex workers, drug addicts, prisoners, transgender people, and gay men. He pointed out how stigma hinders public health: “Stigmatization hurts everyone. Social solidarity protects everyone.”
The second step is to ensure the exchange of health technologies, including long-acting antiretrovirals, to make them available to people in every country in the world.
The third step is to increase the resources available to deal with AIDS. “Investing in AIDS is investing in global health security. It saves lives and money.”
In his opening remarks, the President of the General Assembly, Mr. Abdulla Shahid noted that “equal access to health care is an essential human right to ensure public health for all. No one is safe until we are all safe. Striving to achieve this. The goals of AIDS for 2025 are an opportunity to work together to increase investment in public health systems and pandemic responses, and to take advantage of the lessons learned from the HIV / AIDS crisis for our recovery from COVID-19 , and vice versa “.
More than 35 member states and observers made statements during the AIDS review, which included contributions on behalf of the Africa Group, the Caribbean Community and the Central American Integration System and the European Union.
The statements emphasized the urgency of stepping up collective action to achieve the 2025 goals and the importance of a lens of inequality to ensure a successful response to HIV.
The President of the General Assembly, the Secretary-General, the Africa Group, the EU and several Member States stressed the importance of fully funding the HIV response and strengthening investment in global health.
The Africa Group, along with many others, spoke about tackling stigma and discriminatory laws that prevent people from accessing health care and social services.
The debate made it clear that an end to AIDS is possible, but only if countries worked together and were brave enough to address inequalities. “The most important message today,” said the Secretary-General, “is that if we work together to address the inequalities that perpetuate HIV / AIDS, we can still end it as a threat to public health. in 2030 “.