Opening remarks by H.E. Mr Mogens Lykketoft, President of the 70th session of the General Assembly, at informal meeting of the General Assembly on HIV/AIDS
8 April 2016
Excellencies, distinguished co-facilitators, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS, ladies and gentlemen.
I welcome you all to this informal meeting of the General Assembly to continue preparations for the upcoming High-level meeting on HIV/AIDS in June.
As mentioned before, the HLM comes at a critical juncture in the global AIDS response.
It provides us with an opportunity to accelerate efforts towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 – an incredible vista in its own right.
The HLM also offers an opportunity to ground our efforts to end this epidemic in the broader 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to support progress across several SDGs.
I thank all delegations for their continued interest and engagement in the preparatory process.
Two days ago, on 6 April, I held a Civil Society Hearing, as mandated by resolution 70/228.
The hearing saw stakeholder partners express their priorities regarding the HLM and its Political Declaration.
Discussions were frank, diverse and very informative and I will prepare a full Summary for you in due course.
I am however, pleased to report a good alignment between the objectives and priorities of the stakeholder partners and those set out by the Member States in resolution 70/228, such as the commitment of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 and to strengthening interlinkages with the SDGs.
Partners also set out some of their specific priorities.
These included the critical importance of financing, technologies and innovation; the central role of communities and the need to embed the principle of leaving no one behind into our overall approach.
Also with regard to stakeholder engagement, delegations will recall that on 30 March, I circulated the list – of NGOs, civil society organisations, academic institutions and the private sector who applied to attend the High-level meeting in June – for consideration of Member States on a non-objection basis.
Given the important contribution of civil society, private sector and other stakeholders in the AIDS response, and in order to ensure an inclusive and participatory HLM, I call on Member States to extend their full support to stakeholder participation and approve this list as soon as possible.
Additionally, for your information, a list of accredited non-governmental organizations with ECOSOC consultative status has also been circulated.
Let me now turn to the report of the Secretary-General, an advance version of which was circulated on 4 April.
I would like to thank the Secretary-General for an excellent report, which provides detailed information and analysis, and which will serve as the main background document to support the HLM deliberations.
I am very happy to have with us today Ms Jan Beagle, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS, who will introduce the report in shortly.
Finally, I wish to note that there are a number processes and events in the lead up to the HLM that offer valuable opportunities to draw out the inter-linkages between key issues and to build momentum towards the HLM.
These include in particular the GA Special Session on Drugs and the High-Level Thematic Debate on the SDGs that I will hold on 21 April.
To conclude, I wish you the very best in your deliberations and I encourage you to extend your full support to the co-facilitators throughout the process ahead.
As I will have to excuse myself shortly, I now hand over to the Co-facilitators who will chair the remainder of the meeting.