World leaders fail to agree on how to scale up the fight against AIDS
June 2nd 2006 marked the end of the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS or UNGASS + 5. The aim of the meeting was to agree a UN declaration reviewing global progress on HIV/AIDS. However, delegates struggled to reach consensus over the final declaration and how best to tackle the HIV / AIDS pandemic. It has also failed to impress and be endorsed by civil society groups who are disappointed by the "lack of ambition" in the text.
The latest UN declaration left out any global targets for achieving universal access to treatment by 2010.
Image © istockphoto.com Andrew Hill
The latest UN declaration left out any global targets for achieving universal access to treatment by 2010.
The first UN Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS was made at a similar meeting in 2001. Five years later, we are still reviewing the same declaration. Although the importance of male and female condoms in prevention efforts has been agreed, there is still no recognition of the increased vulnerability of specific groups, particularly men who have sex with men, sex workers and drug-users. Some countries fear it would amount to supporting illegal activities in their responce to HIV/AIDS.
The term “vulnerable groups” will be used instead, and despite agreement on condom use, countries from Africa and the Middle East frown on this inclusion for fear of promoting promiscuity. In general, the declaration falls far short of expectations at a time when over 8,000 people a day die of AIDS globally.
A declaration negotiated at the UN High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS was always going to be a compromise between conservative governments and those demanding a bolder response to halt the epidemic, including reaching out to marginalised groups. However, a commitment that would mark a real and measurable step forward from the agreement reached at the 2001 UNGASS on HIV/AIDS was urgently needed.
Between US$20 billion-$23 billion a year will be needed by 2010 to support “rapidly scaled-up AIDS responses” in developing countries.
Image © istockphoto.com/ PhekThong Lee
The original UNGASS document was anchored to a list of time-bound goals, which most governments will try to achieve. But no clearly defined targets or timeframes have been included in the new high-level report, negotiated between regional delegations and two UN General Assembly co-chairs, who had no specific experience in HIV/AIDS.
Although the declaration recognises that between US$20 billion-$23 billion a year will be needed by 2010 to support “rapidly scaled-up AIDS responses” in developing countries, it aims to only “come as close as possible” to universal access to prevention, treatment and care. Many see this as an escape clause to achieving universal access by 2010.
But Michel Sidibe, director of the Department of Country and Regional Support at UNAIDS, was more positive over the opportunity presented by the conference.
“The world wants by 2010 to be as close as possible to universal access. It’s a huge task, but not a dream - it requires better coordination of funding, provision of services and a well-costed, evidence-based planning system.” Universal access provided an opportunity to “move from crisis management to a more strategic response”, which countries now owned and could be held accountable for.
In contrast Hilary Benn, the UK Secretary of State for International Development, made a statement at the summit saying
“I wish we could have been a bit more frank in our declaration about telling the truth”, further going on to say “That abstinence is fine for those who are able to abstain, but that human beings like to have sex and they should not die because they do have sex.”
In preparation for the UN meeting, The African Union (AU) had negotiated and drawn up a far more defined and comprehensive programme with a number of goals in Abuja, Nigeria last May. The Abuja Declaration included a commitment to reach 80 percent of people needing treatment by 2010. It was the culmination of a process in which HIV/AIDS had become “internalised” by African leaders and institutions.
Particularly upsetting to many African NGOs was that their governments, negotiating in New York under the leadership of Gabon, chose to ignore a pre-agreed common position that included targets. Apart from Nigeria, no other African country challenged Gabon’s interpretation of the common position.
“I think the [draft] UN declaration is very weak, and the most disappointing thing is the lack of targets. Our African governments have let us down, and [the irony is that] it is our continent which is the worst affected,” said Emma Tuahepa, coordinator of Namibia’s National Association of People Living with AIDS.
The Abuja document was much stronger and more focused than the UN declaration, having for the first time a lot of commitment from African heads of state and governments on what needs to be done. However, as so often is the case, there remains a “disconnect” between New York-based African diplomats negotiating the new UN declaration, and the “realities on the ground”, where African leaders are no longer shying away from action and the protection of vulnerable groups like women and girls, sex workers and migrant populations.
The conference was drawn to a dramatic end when protestors demonstrated their disappointment by repeatedly chanting “silence is death”…. inside the meeting
…and they may well be right. Increased access to AIDS treatment saved between 250,000 and 350,000 lives in 2005 but the latest UN declaration remaining largely silent on treatment, leaving out any global targets for achieving universal access by 2010.
The draft political declaration UN GASS+5
Full statement by Hilary Benn
