Unprecedented global participation at UN General Assembly High Level
Meeting on AIDS leads to new commitments, targets and momentum in the AIDS
response

NEW YORK/GENEVA, 10 June 2011

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) welcomes the bold new targets set by world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS which concluded in New York today. Countries agreed to advance efforts towards reducing sexual transmission of HIV and halving HIV infection among people who inject drugs by 2015.

They also agreed to push towards eliminating new HIV infections among
children in the next five years. Leaders pledged to increase the number of
people on life saving treatment to 15 million and to reduce tuberculosis
related deaths in people living with HIV by half in the same time period.

“This Declaration is strong, the targets are time bound and set a clear and
workable roadmap, not only for the next five years, but beyond,” said Joseph
Deiss, President of the United Nations General Assembly. “UN Member States
have recognized that HIV is one of the most formidable challenges of our
time and have demonstrated true leadership through this Declaration in their
commitments to work towards a world without AIDS.”

The bold targets come at a time when international assistance for the AIDS
response has dropped for the first time since 2001. Member States agreed to
increase AIDS-related spending to reach between US$ 22 billion and US$ 24
billion in low- and middle-income countries by 2015.

These far reaching goals are set in the *Political Declaration on
HIV/AIDS: Intensifying our Efforts to eliminate HIV/AIDS *adopted by the
General Assembly on 10 June, 2011. The declaration notes that HIV prevention
strategies inadequately focus on populations at higher risk—specifically men
who have sex with men, people who inject drugs and sex workers, and calls on
countries to focus their response based on epidemiological and national
contexts.

“These are concrete and real targets that will bring hope to the 34 million
people living with HIV and their families,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive
Director of UNAIDS. “Through shared responsibility, the world must invest
sufficiently today, so we will not have to pay forever.”

The declaration calls on all UN Member States to redouble their efforts to
achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support by
2015 as a critical step towards ending the global AIDS epidemic. A pledge to
eliminate gender inequality, gender based abuse and violence, and to
increase the capacity of women and adolescent girls to protect themselves
from HIV infection was also made.

The Declaration recognizes that access to sexual and reproductive health has
been and continues to be essential to the AIDS response and that governments
have the responsibility of providing public health services focused on the
needs of families, particularly women and children. Member states also
agreed to review laws and policies that adversely impact on the successful,
effective and equitable delivery of HIV prevention, treatment, care and
support programmes to people living with and affected by HIV.

With nearly 7000 new HIV infections each day, the declaration reaffirms that
preventing HIV must be the cornerstone of national, regional and
international responses to the AIDS epidemic. It calls for expanding access
to essential HIV prevention commodities, particularly male and female
condoms and sterile injecting equipment. Calling for intensifying national
HIV testing campaigns; it urges countries to deploy new bio-medical
interventions as soon as they are validated including earlier access to
treatment as prevention.

Taking note of the UNAIDS strategy, the Declaration commends UNAIDS for its
leadership role on AIDS policy coordination and support to countries and
calls on the joint programme to revise indicators for success and support
the Secretary-General of the United Nations in providing an annual report on
the progress made by Member States in realizing the commitments made in the
declaration.

To read the full transcript of the declaration please click the link:
AIDS_2011_Declaration

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