Mr.President. Excellencies, Distinguished delegates,

Allow me on behalf of the Lithuanian delegation to thank you and United Nations secretariat for organising the Special Session of the General Assembly on HIVIAIDS. Sharing the experience and the best practices with other countries gives us a new impetus for trying to find possible solutions for this disastrous epidemic. Lithuania would also like to thank the Secretary General for his excellent and comprehensive report.

Mr.President,

While aligning fully with the statement made by the European Union, I would still like to share with you our national experiences on this issue.

Lithuania with its 3.5 million population has a relatively low prevalence of HIV/AIDS pandemic if to compare to some other countries in our region. Up to date there were reported 39 cases of AIDS and 308-cases of HIV. But we perfectly understand that we do not live in an isolated world and HIV/AIDS is a menace to human security worldwide. It does not require visas to cross the borders and it does not make any difference between rich and poor. Clearly, the global pandemic needs urgent action at all levels -- community, national, regional and global levels.

The low prevalence of HIV in Lithuania might be attributed to success of the joint efforts of the Lithuanian AIDS Centre and other authorities which timely respond to situation changes and took lessons from both negative and positive experiences of other nations. In Lithuania the epidemic is mainly confined to injecting drug users and their partners. The present situation is complicated due to parallel epidemics of HIV, sexually transmitted infections and drug use. While very large numbers of intravenous drug users are uninfected, they still however constitute the largest threat for the immediate and explosive spread of HIV infection in Lithuania. As it was already mentioned before, in total 308 HIV infections (compared with 40 cases in 1995) were reported up to date, approximately half among them are injecting drug users.

As evidenced by the increase in sexually transmitted infections in the region since 1990, their high rates and the emergence of a bridging population of injecting sex workers, indicate the potential for a slower, albeit more generalized, HIV heterosexual epidemic. The risk for this third wave of infection is increasing with the growth of prostitution in the region. Young people are in particularly high risk for infection. The vast majority of those infected with HIV are in their twenties.

In our opinion, prevention is the most important element and the best possible tool to fight with HIV/AIDS. Special educational programs for different age groups were launched in Lithuania. Still the most intensively national response is targeting the most vulnerable groups (young people) seeking to achieve possibly wider coverage of targeted populations. International partners are supporting numerous projects and programs across the region. External support must be carefully coordinate in order to maximize the impact of valuable resources.

The first National AIDS Programme was carried out in 1990-1994, providing testimony that the Lithuanian authorities attached great importance to the problem from the very beginning when the first case of HIV in Lithuania was diagnosed .The National Programme for 1999-2001 is based on the assumption that the epidemic is impossible to stop without common efforts of the whole society.

Mr. President,

The democratic structure of the Lithuanian society provides a framework for cooperation between the legislative, governmental and municipal authorities. Non-governmental organisations are playing must further play an important role in this process. The National AIDS Programme is designed to fight all forms of discrimination and stigma related to the HIV positive people. This programme encourages to respect everybody's rights for protection against HIV infection and seeks to assure comprehensive social and medical services for people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. In order to assure realisation of the aims foreseen in the National AIDS Programme, cooperation between various structures of the state authority and nonGovernmental organizations is necessary.

The health care objective cannot be achieved without appropriate financing. Therefore, we have to proceed with strong advocacy strategies to raise awareness of governments, policy makers, ministries, opinion leaders and the general public about the impact of HIV/AIDS. Government and parliamentarians, in collaboration with the international community and nongovernmental organizations, should make the necessary plans in accordance with national concerns and priorities and take the actions required to measure, assess monitor and evaluate progress towards meeting the goals of the present National Programme.

Today we are proud to state that Lithuanian example shows how small independent state is able to take coordinated preventive actions in order to tackle this infection and not let it spread further. Lithuania is prepared to share its experience and is open for cooperation with other countries in this field.

Thank you for your attention.