Article: Special U.N. Session on HIV/AIDS Set for June

24 May 2001

Article: Special U.N. Session on HIV/AIDS Set for June

Session to mobilize global fight against HIV/AIDS epidemic

By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations - As a United Nations Special Session on HIV/AIDS approaches, negotiators are working intensely to finalize a draft declaration for world leaders to sign expressing their commitment to conquer the global epidemic. The session is set for June 25 to 27, 2001 in New York.

The special General Assembly session comes as international momentum on the issue has been growing over the last year, key organizers of the event said at a press conference May 21. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has issued a call to action that has been further propelled by commitments of resources such as President George Bush's May 11 pledge of $200 million to a global disease fund proposed by Annan.

The June session will emphasize that HIV/AIDS is a global development catastrophe that can be contained, the organizers said. Negotiations on the draft declaration, which will be the centerpiece of the session, are underway in New York May 21 to 25. International negotiators are trying to come to agreement on a "Declaration of Commitment" that would be adopted by top officials who will be attending the special session.

While the regions most affected by the disease are Africa and the Caribbean, "This pandemic is spreading and spreading rapidly -- which is why we have to focus as much on prevention as we do on treatment, care and support for those affected," Australian Ambassador Penny Wensley said.

HIV/AIDS data in "Central and Eastern Europe, in the Pacific, in India, in China, in other parts of the world show that this is a global problem that needs global action and a global response," said Wensley, a principle organizer of the session.

"This is no longer just a health problem," she continued. "This is a development catastrophe and it is a problem that is raising profound risks to security and to development, not just of individuals, not just of communities, but of entire countries."

Most importantly, the ambassador said, "we know we can contain" the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Countries such as Senegal and Australia have succeeded in reducing the level of incidents through national strategies, Wensley pointed out. "We know it can be done, but it cannot be done unless there is a massive infusion of resources and a mobilization of political will and of the economic and financial muscle that is needed to address the problem." Most importantly, the ambassador said, the session's leaders will work to mobilize the resources to deal with the epidemic.

Negotiators are working intensely to prepare a "readable, action-oriented, declaration that responds fully to the sense of urgency and crisis" of HIV/AIDS around the world, Wensley said.

Declarations of this breadth adopted at major U.N. conferences usually take several years of negotiations, but in this case Wensley and Ambassador Ibra Defuene Ka of Senegal, co-chairman of the negotiations, have had a little over eight months to put together the recommendations of other summits, regional AIDS meetings, and suggestions from governments and private groups into a working draft.

It is important that the declaration "demonstrate to the millions of people out there who are expecting an appropriate response that the U.N. is capable and its members are capable of responding to this very urgent challenge," Wensley said.

Resources will be "a key point" of the discussions, Ka said, as it is very important that the commitment be honored in the coming years.

Ka noted that "what is important to combat this epidemic is that the international community help the countries in their national efforts to mobilize enough resources in order to combat the disease."

The proposed declaration commits the international community to halt the spread of AIDS and start reversing its spread by 2015. It sets out a framework of specific targets for 2003, 2005, 2110 in a range of areas: prevention, care, support and treatment, AIDS orphans, science and research, and AIDS in war zones.

"There is essentially a strong wish on the part of member states to have really concrete actions and define a set of targets that are based on sound scientific and technical advice," Wensley said. "The proposals have been very thoroughly worked through with UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Program on AIDS) to make sure that what is being proposed is actually achievable from a technical sense and based on results that have already been achieved in certain areas."

The most contentious issues facing the negotiations are the same that dominated other U.N. conferences -- resources and setting priorities about where and how the fund should be directed; access to and affordability of drugs; and cultural and religious sensitivities related to human rights issues, the Australian ambassador said.

The drug issue "isn't a straightforward or easy subject," she said. "It involves a whole range of technical issues and trade laws, intellectual property rights, and legal issues."

Allocation of resources is very sensitive for developing countries and the least developed countries, especially for Africa and the Caribbean, the regions most affected, Ka said. Access to drugs and vaccine research are also very important.

He pointed out that African leaders sent "a very big signal" to the session during the Abuja Summit in April when they accepted earmarking 15 percent of their national budgets to fight the epidemic.

"They have very limited resources" and the commitment "must be complemented by the international community," the Senegal ambassador said. "There will be pointed discussions in terms of having additional resources by having debt relief and grants."

In a statement released by the United States, Scott Evertz, chief U.S. negotiator, said that the U.S. believes that "leadership and prevention are key" in approaching the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

"The issues surrounding treatment relate not only to the cost, availability and affordability of drugs, but just as critically to the training of healthcare personnel, laboratory capacity and other infrastructure issues; and suitable approaches to monitoring the most effective and safe way to use these drugs," said Evertz, who joins the negotiations in his capacity as the head of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy.

Debt relief, he said, "is an issue only tangentially related to HIV/AIDS. The United States is a strong advocate of the enhanced Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) Initiative, but in this forum we need to focus on HIV/AIDS specifically," and avoid duplication of other ongoing efforts to address debt relief.

"One key result of the special session should be agreement on a fund that can attract support from governments, civil society, the private sector, foundations, and individuals to achieve tangible results," Evertz said.

Prevention is another important disease-fighting strategy that is under discussion in the declaration negotiations, but it also raises sensitivities that make the talks difficult, Wensley said.

The drafters of the declaration have tried to accommodate cultural sensitivities in recommending strategies to contain the spread of HIV/AIDS, she said. Those strategies recognize the importance of developing the concept of the family; account for cultural, ethical, and religious factors; and reduce the vulnerability of children and young people by promoting the access of both boys and girls to primary and secondary education, including AIDS education.

While trying to be sensitive to those cultural issues, Australia's ambassador to the United Nations said, "We will need to remind colleagues that unless we target education and information programs, prevention strategies will not be as successful as they might otherwise be," she said. "We will need to deal with these issues with delicacy and with dignity, but they will have to be dealt with because...the issues of HIV/AIDS take us directly to discussing intensely sensitive and personal issues about stigma, about discrimination, about the empowerment of women just to name a few," Wensley said.

Those rights issues have been the most difficult in previous U.N. conferences and this conference is shaping up to be no different, the ambassador said. "There are a number of governments that are keen to push the envelope of what constitutes rights and they are talking about the right to health, right to treatment, right to access to treatment."