Secretary-General's remarks at "Light for Rights" World AIDS Day Event

What a wonderful, inspiring gathering.

I thank the organizers for making this event possible.

I thank all of you here for your commitment.

And I salute all the government leaders, community activists and others who are participating in World AIDS Day events around the world.

The global mobilization on AIDS has spearheaded remarkable results.

But as we all know, the gains are fragile and must protected and sustained. That is what brings us together tonight in common cause.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have met people many people who are living with HIV and AIDS –including staff of the United Nations itself.

I am always struck by their directness in talking about their lives.

I am always inspired by the way they themselves are helping the world and the workplace respond to AIDS.

We are together tonight to denounce the discrimination they face.

The fear and stigma. The shame and rejection. The threat of losing their jobs.

For too long and in too many places, too many people have been pushed beyond the reach of prevention, treatment, care and support.

We have seen people die when life-saving medicines were within reach.

We have seen children grow up alone after losing parents to the disease.

This is the human toll of discrimination.

Discrimination against people living with HIV, sex workers, drug users, and men who have sex with men only fuels the epidemic.

Successful AIDS responses don't punish people, they protect them.

Discrimination casts a long, dark shadow. We must respond by shining the full light of human rights on the challenge.

I call on all countries to dismantle legal frameworks that institutionalize discrimination against people living with HIV and people who are at most risk of infection. Punitive laws, policies and practices that hamper the AIDS response are counter-productive and unjust.

I welcome the recent announcement by President Obama that the United States will remove travel restrictions that have kept people living with HIV from entering the country.

Not long ago, I pushed my own country to take a similar step, and I am pleased to say that Korea is in the process of doing so.

Now we have to press the other countries that still have outright HIV-related travel bans in place to remove them as soon as possible.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As you know, the number of deaths caused by AIDS has continued to decline. Fewer people are being infected by HIV. And significantly more people are receiving treatment. This remarkable progress shows what we can achieve.

The response to AIDS is also crucial for our broader efforts to improve global public health.

Health is the tie that binds all of the Millennium Development Goals together. If we fail to meet our targets on health, we will never overcome poverty, prevent hunger, lower childhood mortality, and protect the health and well being of women.

This work is among my top priorities. Investments in health are investments in our well-being as a human family. Cutting back should be unthinkable. The economic crisis should not be an excuse to abandon commitments.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I will continue to count on you -- for action on AIDS, and for action across the public health agenda.

Let us keep striving to achieve universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support.

Let us keep fighting discrimination and changing the mindsets that perpetuate it.

And let us shine the powerful light of human rights on this challenge.

From darkness to light: that is our struggle. We have lost too many loved ones.

I am more determined than ever to fight the AIDS epidemic. I know you are, too.

Thank you.