2008 High-Level Meeting on AIDS: ‘Don’t We Deserve to Live a Better Life?’
By T. Vishnu Jayaraman
At a United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on AIDS, Ratri Suryadarma of Indonesia, who is openly living with AIDS, stated that the marginalized and vulnerable groups in Asia have limited access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. “I ask you, why? Are we not humans? Don’t we deserve to live a better life and ask for equal rights and treatment as others?” she questioned. According to her, women in Asia-Pacific have the highest risk of contracting HIV-infection through marriage.
Ratri Suryadarma of the Coordination of Action Research on AIDS in Asia, addresses a high-level meeting on a comprehensive review of the progress achieved in realizing the Declaration of Commitment on HIV and AIDS and the Political Declaration on the pandemic.(UN Photo/Evan Schneider)
Ms. Suryadarma, who found out about her HIV status in 2006, is the Programme Officer at the Coordination of Action Research on AIDS and Mobility Asia (CARAM Asia), Malaysia, which is an advocacy and research organization that works to promote and protect the rights and health of Asian migrant workers globally. By making her HIV-status public, Ms. Suryadarma claimed that she was taking a risk of being banned in over 70 countries around the world. “As a person living with HIV, all that I needed are equal treatment, support and good care. As a mother, I ask this for my daughter and our future generations”, she pleaded.
The High-Level Meeting, held from 10 to 11 June 2008, opened with statements from the President of the General Assembly, Srgjan Kerim, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UNAIDS Executive-Director Peter Piot, and Ms. Suryadarma. In his speech, Mr. Kerim stated that “the failure to make sufficient progress in our response to HIV/AIDS profoundly impacts all aspects of human development. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is not only a major public health issue, but also a major cause of what we now refer to as a development emergency.”
The meeting was convened to review progress made in implementing the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the 2006 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS. The two declarations have played a significant role in raising global awareness of HIV and in coordinating efforts to improve access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. In adopting the Declaration of Commitment, the international community set common targets to control the spread of HIV/AIDS, thus alleviating its impact. The Declaration, which highlights leadership roles, preventive strategies, human rights, stigma and discrimination, remains a vital means to guide and secure action, commitment, support and resources for AIDS response. The Political Declaration provides a strong mandate to move the AIDS response forward, particularly with respect to scaling up towards universal access to HIV prevention.
The delegates, consisting of leaders from national governments, UN agencies and civil society groups from around the world, discussed important issues relating to HIV and its progress, as well as the current challenges and recommendations for ensuring a sustainable response for the future. They also participated in a series of panel discussions, touching upon critical topics in the AIDS response, including universal access, leadership in countries with concentrated epidemics, gender equality and the longer-term response.
This Tanzanian woman's husband recently died of AIDS, leaving her alone to take care of their five children. She has received some help from WAMATA, a local NGO assisting people with HIV/AIDS and their families. WAMATA is an acronym for the Kiswahili name "Walio Katika Mapambano na AIDS Tanzania" or "People in the Fight against AIDS in Tanzania "(UN Photo/Louise Grubb)
The Secretary-General, in his speech, stated that 3 million people in 2007 had access to antiretroviral treatment in low- and middle-income countries, thereby leading a better quality of life. Antiretroviral drugs inhibit the replication of HIV and when given in combination, delay the immune deterioration and improve the quality and longevity of life. Mr. Ban also stated that “this is a milestone year in several ways. In September 2008, we will meet in the General Assembly to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).”
Some of the key findings in Mr. Ban’s report include: an estimated 33.2 million people worldwide were living with HIV as of December 2007; the annual rate of new HIV infections appear to have decreased over the last decade—with an estimated 2.5 million people newly infected with HIV in 2007, down from 3.2 million in 1998; the annual number of AIDS deaths has declined from 3.9 million in 2001 to 2.1 million in 2007; and the number of people newly infected has increased in countries such as China, Indonesia and the Russian Federation, as well as in North American and European Union countries. The report also highlights the implementation of national policies on HIV, planning of longer-term strategies by national governments and leaders involved in HIV response, scaling up HIV prevention in countries where HIV prevalence exceeds 15 per cent, mounting an effective response in concentrated epidemics and sustaining scale-up of HIV treatment while strengthening measures to address HIV/tuberculosis co-infection.
Addressing the General Assembly, Dr. Piot asserted that much remains undone. “Going by the current rate, most low- and middle-income countries would fail to meet universal access by 2010. Many would be unable to meet them by 2015—unless we urgently change the way we operate.” He further stated that “this is why I have been insisting on the importance of shifting to a new phase in the AIDS response— a forward-looking phase in which we treat AIDS as both an immediate crisis and as a long-wave event.” If every teenager had access to HIV prevention, ranging from sex education to promoting mutual respect among boys and girls, “we will be well on the way to a generation of HIV-free adults”, Dr. Piot said.
Bertil Lindblad, Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) office in New York, said in an interview that “UNAIDS has a partnership of ten UN organizations and the Secretariat. We further extend our support to strengthen countries in their efforts to move towards meeting the universal access targets by 2010, as well as the MDGs by 2015.” He further stated that in follow-up of the High-Level Meeting and its strong calls for the scale-up action, UNAIDS would support countries in acting on AIDS as a long-term challenge that has to be met.
Resources:
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N08/291/65/PDF/N0829165.pdf?OpenElement http://www.un.org/webcast/aidsmeeting2008/statements/highlevelaids2008_SG_en.pdf http://data.unaids.org/pub/SpeechEXD/2008/20080610_sp_hlm_piot_en.pdf http://www.un.org/webcast/aidsmeeting2008/statements/RATRI.pdf http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/Resources/FeatureStories/archive/2008/20080611_Civil_society_interactive_hearing.asp http://data.unaids.org/publications/irc-pub03/aidsdeclaration_en.pdf http://data.unaids.org/pub/PressRelease/2008/20080609_hlm_pr_en.pdf http://data.unaids.org/pub/PressStatement/2006/20060620_PS_HLM_en.pdf
