Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,

AIDS is a development catastrophe.
In Abuja African leaders declared Aids a state of emergency in their continent. Other regions report alarming infection rates. We face a global crisis. We need a global response. Global solidarity.

Our battle against HIV/AIDS must be part of our battle against poverty. For AIDS causes poverty. And poverty undercuts our fight against AIDS.

Winning the war against Aids will take courageous political leadership. Like that provided by President Museveni, by President Obasanjo, and by others present here today.

It will take unprecedented mobilization of resources. Additional resources. Like the domestic resources pledged by African leaders in Abuja. Like the increased ODA often pledged, but seldom delivered. It will take external resources mobilized through innovative, private public partnerships like the proposed global fund.

It will take breaking the walls of silence and denial. Like our natural shyness to talk about sex and condoms. In public. To our youngsters. The price of silence and denial has become much too high. Too high on parents. Higher still on millions of orphans.

It will take putting an end to abuse, discrimination and stigma. So that little Nkosi Johnson from South Africa, who shamed and inspired us equally, did not die in vain. We must offer partnership, not exclusion. Partnership with people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. Innovative ways of working with such vulnerable groups as men who have sex with men, injecting drug users, sex workers. Openness and cooperation promotes responsible behavior. Stigmatization increases vulnerability.

It will take a response firmly based on the promotion and protection of human rights. The right to development. The right to health. The right to life.

Why? - Because people whose rights and dignity are violated become more vulnerable to HIV infection. Because discrimination of those infected also discourages testing and undermines effective prevention. Because the epidemic poses a new and grave challenge to the fulfillment of the right to health.

Mr. President,

We welcome recent progress to make AIDS-related drugs more accessible and affordable. We must push on to deal with structural and systemic barriers to such access. The pharmaceutical industry must be held morally responsible. More must be done on differential pricing. The public health safeguards in the TRIPS agreement must become a real option for developing countries.

But drugs alone will not bring us victory. Even much cheaper drugs must still be paid for. They must be delivered. They must administered. Patients must receive treatment and care. It is irresponsible to talk about drugs without talking about additional resources. We cannot talk about drugs without talking about health delivery systems.

Prevention must remain the mainstay of our response to halt the spread of AIDS. At the same time we must assume responsibility for those already infected. Effective health systems combine and reinforce both.

Young people must be given tools and life skills to protect themselves. Condoms must be widely available and affordable. We must increase efforts to prevent mother-to-childtransmission. Women must be empowered so that they can truly protect themselves. We must promote male responsibility. We must harness the desire of trade unions to protect their members, the interest of employers to protect their workers.

The Security Council has recognized the impact of AIDS on peace and security. Armed conflicts fuel the epidemic and multiply the number of victims. We must work with the uniformed services, including peacekeeping personnel. During an international peace support exercise in Norway recently, I was proud to be the first to hand out the Hiv/Aids Awareness Card for Peacekeeping Operations, produced by UNAIDS and the UN Department for Peacekeeping Operations with Norwegian funding.

We must mobilize broadly.

No government can deal with the challenges of the epidemic alone. It requires an extraordinary partnership with the civil society and the private sector. It calls for alliances with all democratic forces, across political divides.
And we must start at home.

In the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs every director general has become a member of our AIDS team, every department given an AIDS mandate. Inspired by African AIDS commissions, we have established a Forum for AIDS and development, as well as an Aidsnet, where leaders of labor, business, culture, sport, churches, NGOs, mass media and the research community have joined as partners against AIDS. I am proud to have many of them here, as members of my delegation.

Mr. President,

The counter offensive against AIDS cannot be won without a bigger war chest.

The Norwegian Government welcomes the proposal for a new global fund on Aids and health, tuberculosis and malaria. The operational framework must be set out in close cooperation with the developing countries most affected. The fund must tie in with and complement existing efforts and structures, particularly the UNAIDS umbrella. It must be effectively geared to country implementation. It must become operational soon.

My Government pledges an additional one billion Norwegian Kroner (approximately 110 million USD) over the next five years to international efforts against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. We attach particular importance to strengthening health systems in developing countries in cooperation with the WHO, and to reaching the poorest and hardest hit. How much will be channeled through existing mechanisms, and how much through the new fund, will be decided when we know more about the fund.

Mr. President,

Let me conclude by paying tribute to the Secretary-General for the way he has made the fight against AIDS a personal cause and a priority issue for the UN System. His leadership will surely be needed in the follow-up of the Special Session as well.

Thank you.