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UN
Member States Hedge Pledges to Fight AIDS
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - The United Nations wrapped up its
major conference on AIDS with a slew of pious declarations and new
commitments to fight AIDS, which has killed more than 22 million
people over the past 20 years.
UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the three-day UN General Assembly
Special Session on HIV-AIDS proved historic for two reasons.
First, the level of attendance showed that the world is at long
last waking up to the gravity of the HIV-AIDS crisis. Second, the
16-page Declaration of Commitment on HIV-AIDS, adopted by member
states "provides us with a clear strategy for tackling it."
Mohga Kamal Smith, health advisor to the London-based non-governmental
organisation (NGO) OXFAM, said: "The United Nations did what
it could. Now it's up to the leaders of the G-8 rich nations to
underwrite this effort at their meeting next month in Genoa, Italy."
Smith referred to the Group of Eight - Britain, Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States - which is expected
to boost the Annan's global AIDS fund with fresh contributions.
The fund, whose target is seven billion to 10 billion dollars per
year, has so far garnered only about one billion dollars.
Smith also said that the critical issue of drastic reductions in
the prices of medicines and use of generics has yet to be confronted.
Both issues were marginalised in the declaration adopted Wednesday.
Phillipe Leveque, spokesman for CARE, a US-based NGO, said the declaration
represents "a global recognition of a global crisis" but
added that signatories now face the translating their words into
action.
"After 20 years and 22 million deaths, the international community
has produced a document which can serve as the blueprint for coordinated,
accountable and meaningful actions to stop and reverse the spread
of HIV-AIDS," Leveque said.
"It may not be perfect," he said of the declaration, "but
it represents a positive development in the fight against HIV-AIDS."
Annan brushed off suggestions that the declaration was merely rhetorical,
saying such criticism follows nearly every large UN conference.
"It is sometimes difficult to quantify achievements,"
he said, "but we have focused awareness on this issue in a
manner that the world has not seen before."
Despite Annan's assertions that it was a well-attended meeting,
the only heads of state and government at the special session came
mostly from Africa, the continent most threatened by the AIDS pandemic.
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, the only European head of state
at the talks, was asked whether this reflected an attitude of neglect
among that region's nations.
Ahern sounded apologetic. It would be nice to have had greater European
representation, he said, but he would report to other European nations
through the European Council. He acknowledged that there was widespread
participation by European NGOs.
The fact that the special session focused heavily on Africa came
in for criticism from Malaysia.
Dato' Seri Suleiman Mohamad, Malaysia's deputy minister of health,
told delegates Wednesday that although he was in agreement with
much of the declaration, Malaysia was disappointed at "the
very low profile given to Asia and the Pacific, where 60 percent
of the world's population lives."
While recognising the magnitude of the African problem, he said,
the impending epidemic in Asia and the Pacific will far surpass
anything previously seen, "if nothing is done today."
"It is our earnest hope that the proposed global AIDS fund
will be appropriately apportioned to ensure that this future disaster
is averted," he added.
The devastating disease, he pointed out, had not spared Malaysia
where more than 40,000 cases of HIV-AIDS have been reported so far,
with almost 4,000 deaths.
Meanwhile, 62 young people representing 26 countries presented a
Youth Position Paper, calling on world leaders to address the most
critical youth-related issues left out of the declaration.
"The declaration sets the agenda for the global response to
HIV-AIDS but fails to highlight the need to involve youth in the
decision-making processes at all levels, including governments,
the United Nations, international agencies and NGOs," the youth
caucus said.
Ambassdor Penny Wensley of Australia, one of the co-facilitators
of negotiations on the draft declaration, termed the declaration
"a quantum leap", adding: "Frankly, it had been a
very difficult negotiation. The issues raised profound sensitivities."
Citing religious sensibilities, several Muslim nations objected
to references to homosexuals and sex workers while others raised
objections to references in relation to the human rights aspects
of HIV-AIDS.
Seth Berkley, president of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative,
said: "This declaration represents an important step in bringing
world leaders together to confront the AIDS epidemic but lacks a
firm commitment to providing future AIDS vaccines to all who need
them without delay."
The declaration, which is not legally binding, lays out a number
of targets, including: - developing national strategies and financing
plans to combat HIV-AIDS by 2003; - making available, in all countries
and by 2005, information, education and other measures to fight
the disease; - reducing the number of infants infected with HIV
by 20 percent by 2005 and 50 percent by 2010, by providing treatment
to HIV-infected expectant mothers; and - developing national programmes,
by 2003, to increase the availability of drugs to treat HIV-AIDS
by addressing issues such as pricing. Comprehensive health programmes
would be in place by 2005.
The document makes only broad references to issues championed by
the NGO community, however. It simply states, for example, that
human rights and fundamental freedoms are "essential to reduce
vulnerability to HIV-AIDS."
It also recognizes the need for greater access to affordable drugs
but prescribes no specific targets or deadlines.
By 2005, the declaration insists, there should be national strategies
to empower women, promote and protect their full enjoyment of human
rights, and reduce their vulnerability to HIV-AIDS by eliminating
all forms of discrimination against them.
Noeleen Heyzer, executive director of the UN Development Fund for
Women (UNIFEM), said: "Where the relationship between gender
and HIV-AIDS was once ignored or denied, governments have now fashioned
a declaration that recognises the deadly connection."
She also said that civil society organisations and UN agencies now
universally concur that gender inequality, poverty and violence
team up to drive the HIV-AIDS pandemic.
"The crisis continues," she added, "The danger still
looms. We still have an opportunity to design our international
cooperation and allocate our funding with a gender perspective."
(END/IPS)
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