UN Chronicle E-Alert (Vol. 1, No. 8) United Nations in a united world Every year, World AIDS Day is commemorated around the globe on the first day of December, bringing messages of compassion, solidarity, and understanding about HIV/AIDS, and the 40 million people living with the disease. On 26 November, in connection with the observance of World AIDS Day, the United Nations will host a town hall meeting, co-sponsored by UNAIDS and the Department of Public Information. The meeting, under the theme “Live and let live”, will focus on overcoming HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination, and encourage people to break the silence and barriers to effective prevention and care.

“Stigma and Discrimination” is also the theme for the World AIDS Campaign 2003-2004. Discrimination against those living with HIV/AIDS has spread rapidly over the last two decades, intensifying the anxiety and prejudice against individuals and groups most affected by the disease. The fear of discrimination often discourages people from seeking treatment for AIDS or from acknowledging their HIV status publicly. Furthermore, by stigmatizing individuals or groups, society tends to excuse itself from the responsibility of caring for and looking after such vulnerable populations. This problem is particularly acute in Africa, where over the next ten years AIDS is expected to kill more people and orphan more children than all the wars of the twentieth century combined.

The UN Chronicle has for years detailed the societal effects of the global AIDS epidemic and highlighted the problem of HIV stigma. Here are some recent articles published in the Chronicle on HIV/AIDS:

Issue 4, 2002

• “Education: The Only Vaccine We Have”
  by John Katsigeorgis, for the UN Chronicle.

Issue 2, 2002

• “Breaking The Silence”
  by Cathy Shepherd, activist in the women’s movement in Trinidad and Tobago.

Issue 2, 2001

• “The Price of Success, The Cost of Failure:
  Special Session on HIV/AIDS”

Issue 1, 2001

• “Facing It Head-on. We Can. We Must”
  by Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations.



• “What the World, and Its UN, Can Do”
  by Drew Limsky, journalist and fiction writer.



• “Far More Than a Health Issue”
  by Fiona Young, for the UN Chronicle.

Issue 4, 2000

• “The Chronicle Interview”
  by Wendy Fitzwilliam, Goodwill Ambassador for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and spokesperson for the Face to Face campaign.

Issue 3, 2000

• “Is an AIDS Vaccine Possible?”
  by José Esparza, Coordinator of the HIV Vaccine Initiative, jointly sponsored by the World Health Organization and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS.

Issue 1, 1999

• “Then I Open Up and See The Person Falling Here Is Me”
  by Benjamin Weil, freelance writer and editor.

Issue 3, 1998

• “Addressing HIV: Do Conferences and Papers Help?”
  by Benjamin Weil, freelance writer and editor.

These stories and more can be found at UN Chronicle Online at www.un.org/chronicle.

The UN Chronicle print edition is published by the United Nations Department of Public Information in English and French, and co-published in Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. It is not an official record; the views expressed in individual articles do not necessarily imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.

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