NEW YORK, 30 November: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the worlds leaders ahead of World AIDS Day on Friday to use maximum political clout (indflydelse) to keep momentum strong in the fight against AIDS and focus on empowering women, who are increasingly affected.
Annan called the virus, which has killed 25 million people and infected 40 million more, “the greatest challenge of our generation,” but noted changing attitudes in the last decade.
“Financial resources are being committed like never before, people have access to antiretroviral treatment like never before, and several countries are managing to fight the spread like never before,” the secretary-general said in a statement issued Thursday. “Now, as the number of infections continues unabated, we need to mobilize political will like never before.”
Keeping momentum against the growing epidemic requires “every president and prime minister, every parliamentarian and politician, to declare that “AIDS stops with me”, Annan said.
Citing this years World AIDS Day theme of accountability (ansvarlighed), Annan said politicians should protect vulnerable groups, including sex workers and people living with HIV.
He also said they need “to work for real, positive change that will give more power and confidence to women and girls, and transform relations between women and men at all levels of society.”
Due to erratic (svigtende) condom use and the virus spread into new populations, like married women, HIV has made a worrying return to countries such as Thailand and Uganda, he said.
Efforts to reverse that trend in Africa include a new campaign announced Thursday by the African Broadcast Media Partnership Against HIV/AIDS to raise awareness through programming by radio and TV broadcast companies across 25 African countries.
“The multiyear initiative will focus on the behaviors and attitudes that drive HIV infection in Africa, including gender inequality and AIDS stigma,” the group said.
Annan looked back at the creation of UNAIDS, the UN arm formed a decade ago to fight the virus, as a milestone in the world response. Five years ago, member states adopted the Declaration of Commitment that outlines a timeline of AIDS-related goals.
But rates of HIV infection continue to grow, with 4 million new cases worldwide every year. The battle continues to be waged even in countries that were previously models of control.
A recent report from the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition claimed that efforts are stagnating, meaning the world will miss the UNAIDS 2010 target of treating 9,8 million people with antiretrovirals by more than half.
Still, Annan remained resolute about the UN meeting its goals to fight the virus, which including halting and starting to reverse the AIDS epidemic by 2015.
“The challenge now is to deliver on all the promises that have been made,” he said. “Leaders at every level must recognize that halting the spread of AIDS is also a prerequisite for reaching most of the other goals, which together form the international communitys agreed blueprint for building a better world in the 21st century.”
Those goals include cutting by half the number of people living in extreme poverty and ensuring universal elementary education by 2015.
Annan also noted that accountability to eradicate AIDS is not limited to politicians.
The secretary-general called on men to affirm the rights of women and ensure that other men “understand that real manhood means protecting others from risk.” He also said it was essential for “health workers, community leaders and faith-based groups to listen and care, without passing judgment.”
Annual investments in the response to AIDS in low- and middle-income countries now stand at more than US$8 billion (euro6 billion), but Annan speculated that by 2010 total need will exceed US$20 billion (euro15 billion) annually.
“Because the response has started to gain real momentum, the stakes are higher now then than ever before,” Annan said. “We cannot risk letting the advances that have been achieved unravel; we must not jeopardize the heroic efforts of so many.”
Kilde: The Push Journal
