Fifty-seventh General Assembly

Plenary

49^th Meeting (PM)

DELEGATES SAY MOBILIZATION OF TRANSBOUNDARY, TRANSNATIONAL CAPACITIES

CRUCIAL IN WAR AGAINST HIV/AIDS

The importance of interaction and coordinated action among different levels of government and society in the fight against HIV/AIDS was highlighted this afternoon as the General Assembly continued its discussion of the implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, adopted at the Assembly’s twenty-sixth special session in June 2001.

Among measures that needed to be incorporated in the fight against HIV/AIDS, said the representative of Cameroon, were the active participation of civil society, particularly non-governmental organizations (NGOs), strengthened cooperation between international organizations, and intensified coordination of efforts among governments, NGOs and international organizations.  Within its own strategic plan, Cameroon had proposed a real compact of solidarity.

Eritrea’s five-year plan to combat HIV/AIDS underlined the importance of a multi-sectoral and multilateral approach to the disease, said the representative of that country.  The Eritrean Ministry of Health had joined in partnership with other Government sectors as well as NGOs, community-based institutions, faith-based organizations, the private sector and other elements of civil society to respond to the epidemic.

In the same vein, the representative of Nigeria said it was his country’s belief that for anti-HIV/AIDS efforts to succeed, they should transcend the national boundaries of all Member States.  They should involve the concerted action of governments, intergovernmental agencies, NGOs, civil society, the United Nations system and the entire international community.  Statistics confirmed that the epidemic was the single greatest threat to the well-being of future generations, and would remain so unless countries gave utmost priority to the implementation of the Declaration of Commitment.

Statements were also made this afternoon by the representatives of Ethiopia, Botswana, Canada, Malawi, Chile, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Venezuela, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Kenya, Angola (on behalf of the Southern African Development Community) and Suriname.  A representative of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies also addressed the Assembly.

The General Assembly will meet again at 10 a.m. on Thursday 14 November, to resume its discussion of the situation in Central America and the role of the United Nations in promoting a new global human order.  It will also begin consideration of the South American Zone of Peace and Cooperation.

Background

The General Assembly met this afternoon to continue its consideration of follow-up to the outcome of the twenty-sixth special session:  implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, which it had begun on Friday,

8 November.  The Secretary-General’s report on progress towards implementation of the Declaration (document A/57/227 and Corr.1) was based primarily on responses received to a questionnaire sent to Member States seeking to establish a baseline against which future progress would be measured, as well as to chart progress made since the adoption of the Declaration. 

The Declaration, adopted in June 2001, establishes, for the first time ever, time-bound targets to which governments and the United Nations may be held accountable.  It calls for an expanded global response, including prevention of new infections; access to care, support and treatment; protection of human rights and the empowerment of women; mitigation of the societal, household and individual impact of HIV/AIDS; and allocation of sufficient resources to support these initiatives.  The Declaration reflects global recognition of the epidemic as the single greatest threat to the well-being of future generations.

Key findings indicate that the Declaration is an important framework and a critical tool for advocacy, according to the report.  However, while political commitment continues to increase and additional resources are devoted to HIV/AIDS, the scale of country-level activities does not yet match the epidemic.  The Declaration calls on the global community to reach, by 2005, a target of annual expenditures on the epidemic of approximately $10 billion.  A comprehensive analysis by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and leading international economists suggests that at least $9.2 billion annually will be required by 2005 for an effective global response to the epidemic. 

While most countries have developed national AIDS strategies, implementation of these is slow, largely due to a lack of resources and technical capacity.  Commendable programmes fail to achieve full impact because they remain small and lack a comprehensive approach.  Infection rates among young people continue to rise, particularly in Eastern Europe and Asia, where a critical opportunity to stem this rise may be missed.

While many countries report progress in putting into place measures aimed at combating stigma and discrimination, and reducing vulnerability, especially of women, effective efforts were still impeded by HIV-related stigma and the continued marginalization of vulnerable populations.  People living with HIV/AIDS continued to be the most under-utilized resource in the response to the epidemic.  Despite the dramatic increase in the number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, nearly one in two countries lacked a strategy for care and support of children orphaned or made vulnerable by the epidemic. 

The potential impact of increased global commitment was underscored by new projections issued by UNAIDS in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and leading experts.  In the absence of a substantial strengthening of the global response to HIV/AIDS, 45 million new infections were projected to occur between 2002 and 2010.  If available, prevention efforts were scaled up to meet the global HIV/AIDS challenge, 28 million (or 63 per cent) of these projected infections could be averted.  It was possible to halt the advance of the epidemic but this could be achieved only with the sustained mobilization of the global community. 

The report puts forward a number of recommendations for priority action for consideration by the Assembly.  Among other things, Member States are urged to develop and implement a national strategic plan on HIV/AIDS by 2003, and to integrate HIV/AIDS into their development plans and poverty reduction strategies.  Also, to ensure an effective response to the epidemic, the international community is urged to increase assistance significantly to countries which do not have sufficient resources for interventions, or for the strengthening of sustainable human capacity, systems development and capacity-building.

Statements

GEBREHIWOT REDAI (Ethiopia) noted that while there had been a modest increase in resources globally, country-level capacities to manage the epidemic remained limited.  Capacity-building was therefore more desirable than ever.  Expertise must be deployed, experiences shared and new and additional resources mobilized.  He appreciated the crucial role being played by UNAIDS and the Global Fund in fighting the pandemic.

Sub-Saharan Africa and his own country were particularly concerned about the pandemic.  Ethiopia had the third largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS -- a matter of concern since Ethiopia had no welfare system.  On the economic front, the crisis was undermining his country’s efforts to eradicate poverty and ensure food security and access to basic social services.  The loss of the country’s youth could rupture the social fabric of society unless it was halted.  For his country it was a matter of survival, but it could not shift priorities because of its limited resources.  What it had done was put a five-year plan in place to deal with the problem, with a national HIV/AIDS control council playing its part and assistance being provided by many external partners.

Solution of the global crisis depended on global action, he said.  Nations acting singly would not solve the crisis.  It was his Government’s view that national HIV/AIDS control efforts had to be complemented by meaningful support from the international community, international financial institutions, civil society organizations, the business community and the private sector.  His country also needed additional support because of the looming famine in the region.

A.M. DUBE (Botswana) said that reflection on the obstacles encountered in the effort to fight HIV/AIDS should be followed by mapping out a new strategy for implementing the commitments made in the Declaration of Commitment.  As the Secretary-General observed, the epidemic would not be reversed without significant strengthening of the international community’s response.  In the Declaration, Member States had undertaken to establish national targets by 2003 to reduce HIV prevalence among men and women aged 15 to 24.  However, it was doubtful that those targets would be fully established and operational during 2003. 

The statistics offered by UNAIDS were sobering, with only 20 per cent of those already infected enjoying access to treatment.  In Botswana, 38.6 per cent of pregnant women between 15 and 49 and 27.9 per cent of men and women in the same age group were infected.  Out of a population of 1.7 million, 330,000 were living with HIV.  More than a serious challenge, HIV/AIDS threatened the very existence of the nation, which had committed to accord the highest priority to a programme of education, prevention, care, support and treatment of those suffering from HIV/AIDS.  Having established a National AIDS Council, Botswana had now embarked on a Medium-Term Plan focused on prevention, treatment and intervention.  Efforts at prevention were focused upon:  preventing mother-to-child transmission; condom use; youth education; total community mobilization; and public education.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic had had a devastating impact on children, he added.  Botswana had to contend with a growing population of orphaned children and children whose parents were too weak to care for them.  A Children’s Centre of Excellence was to be built to treat all diseases affecting children.

GILBERT LAURIN (Canada) said that a comprehensive attack to combat HIV/AIDS must entail many elements.  Canada’s domestic efforts had focused on men who had sex with men, intravenous drug users, sex workers and prisoners, among other groups.  A comprehensive approach also included prevention and care, treatment and support as integral elements.  He was pleased to see that the report recognized that effective HIV/AIDS strategies must commit to respect for human rights.  The programmes of the Canadian International Development Agency would maintain its focus on four social development priorities:  basic education; child protection; health and nutrition; and HIV/AIDS.  At the same time it hoped to strengthen investment in rural development, including agriculture, water and the environment.

He said that Canada was increasing its efforts on HIV/AIDS and would continue to work with developing countries and countries in transition to meet the goals and commitments of the Declaration.  It strongly supported the formation of partnerships between governments and civil society to improve prevention efforts, strengthen care, treatment and support, and promote and protect the rights of those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.  That included more diligent efforts to reach those most vulnerable, such as women; youth and children; intravenous drug users; prisoners; displaced persons and persons affected by conflict; men who have sex with men; and commercial sex workers.

G.O.O. ALABI (Nigeria) said the HIV/AIDS scourge presented a huge and complex humanitarian crisis, with a large-scale destabilizing effect on the economy, social cohesion, political stability and development of sub-Saharan Africa.  Citing the drastic statistics provided by the Secretary-General’s report, UNAIDS and other sources, he said they confirmed the Declaration’s recognition of the epidemic as the single greatest threat to the well-being of future generations.  It was, therefore, Nigeria’s belief that for anti-HIV/AIDS efforts to succeed, they should transcend the national boundaries of all Member States, involving concerted action by governments, intergovernmental agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society, the United Nations system and the entire international community. 

Unless existing obstacles were overcome, he said, efforts to fight the scourge in developing countries would remain elusive.  There were already socio-cultural and attitudinal problems to overcome in most of sub-Saharan Africa, where there was indiscriminate indulgence in unsafe practices by both orthodox and traditional medical practitioners.  It was most unfortunate that Africa was severely constrained by the dearth of resources to intensify the fight against HIV/AIDS.  Part of the explanation was that the level of overseas development assistance (ODA) to developing countries was not just abysmally low, but also discriminatory, creating doubt about whether the continent would receive priority consideration in the allocation of the United Nations Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

To make matters worse, many of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies were more concerned with the protection of patent rights than with the decimation threatening Africans.  Added to that was the crippling debt burden which continued to deprive African countries of resources needed to address the pandemic.  He reiterated his country’s “persistent call” for forgiveness of the external debts of African countries, whose servicing continued to consume scarce financial resources.

MARTIN BELINGA-EBOUTOU (Cameroon), stressing that the future of humanity was at stake, said that five urgent measures were needed in the fight against HIV/AIDS.  First was the incorporation of the struggle into all programmes and policies, since HIV/AIDS was no longer a health problem but one of development.  In order to build a world free of AIDS, it was necessary to build a world free of poverty.

He said the second step was to ensure sufficient financial resources because the pandemic had developed three times more quickly than the resources aimed at combating it.  Third was the need to ensure the active participation of civil society, particularly NGOs.  Fourth was the necessity to strengthen cooperation among international organizations.  Finally, the coordination of efforts between governments, NGOs and international organizations must be intensified.

Cameroon's strategic plan proposed a real compact of solidarity, he said, adding that the Government was pleased with civil society's commitment to the campaign, with 100 NGOs currently dealing with those infected.  That commitment would culminate in an international meeting of civil society devoted to AIDS in Yaoundé in two days’ time.  At that meeting, Africa’s first ladies would begin their consideration on the basis of the precept that more money was needed in order to have the greatest possible impact and that, while Africa had many anti-AIDS initiatives, they were isolated whereas they should be combined to achieve the greatest possible advantage.

ISAAC C. LAMBA (Malawi) said his country’s national response to the epidemic had touched on a number of key areas, including those raised in the Secretary-General’s report, namely leadership, partnership and resources.  The mechanism for the national response in Malawi was the Strategic Framework on HIV/AIDS 2000-2004, which was launched in 1999 with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) sponsorship.  Among other things, the programmes focused on youth, with particular emphasis on behavioural change.

All possible efforts were being made to treat HIV/AIDS as a cross-cutting issue whose elimination required the involvement of all other sectors, he said.  The Government had approved budget lines for each ministry and department to implement HIV/AIDS programmes.  The education sector was one area that had registered some progress.  Curricula, at both primary and secondary school levels, had been revised to include education on sex and on HIV/AIDS dangers and prevention.

The problem of orphans, he said, was on the rise in Malawi as in other Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, owing to escalating mortality among HIV/AIDS parents.  Malawi alone had close to 1 million orphans.  It was estimated that in the next 10 years, 70,000 children in Malawi would become orphans annually.

JUAN GABRIEL VALDÉS (Chile) said the Declaration of Commitment adopted by Member States in June 2001 was a milestone in the fight against the pandemic.  The points raised in the Secretary-General’s report on progress in implementing the Declaration were important and useful.  For its part, Chile was working hard to implement the commitments it had undertaken and to confront the challenges posed by the disease.

In addition to many other tasks it was undertaking to implement its national strategy, Chile had committed itself to strengthening the protective psycho-social aspects of prevention and comprehensive care, employment, education and health.  The country was therefore focused not only on prevention but also on control.  Despite that progress and the optimistic messages of last year, however, many challenges remained to be overcome, particularly those related to the discriminatory conduct that persisted in some sectors of Chilean society.  That conduct had consequences in a number of areas, especially in exclusion from the work force.

The HIV/AIDS, he said, was an epidemic that posed a threat to all societies and to which societies must develop a global response.  That response should have no room for prejudice or for inflexible ideological postures irrelevant to the urgent needs of affected groups.  Such prejudices made it difficult to devise a satisfactory response that would permit the international community to stem the course of the deadly epidemic.

HANA ŠEVCíKOVá (Czech Republic) said that relevant national targets from the Declaration of Commitment by the United Nations Joint Programme on AIDS during the June 2001 special session on HIV/AIDS had become part of a new Medium-Term Plan for Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS in the Czech Republic between 2003 and 2007.  Seven out of nine UNAIDS programmes and behavioural indicators had been incorporated into the national plan.

She said the Czech Republic, thanks to its health-care standards, was not heavily affected by the epidemic, but it felt solidarity and a shared responsibility for countries whose people may have been affected by HIV/AIDS or tuberculosis on a larger scale.  Nobody could be safe against HIV/AIDS unless the whole planet coordinated efforts to eliminate it.

A set of UNAIDS indicators for the national level of response to the epidemic represented progress in monitoring HIV at the national and international level, she said.  The Czech Republic wished to see the UNAIDS Programme Coordination Board focus its attention more on the further development of such indicators in order to measure United Nations system's progress in its response to HIV.  The Czech Republic was prepared to contribute actively to the work of the Board, and a Czech candidacy had already been presented for a post on the Board from 2004 to 2006.

MARKIYAN KULYK (Ukraine) said the crisis undermined the attainment of sustainable development goals.  But the world had demonstrated its awareness of the problem.  The Declaration of Commitment adopted at the General Assembly special session of June 2001 was a crucial tool for mobilizing global response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and should also be seen as part of the broader process of achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

The disease was on the rise in his country, with about 1 per cent of the adult population affected -– perhaps as many as 400,000 people in all.  However, steps were being taken to prevent the disease from reaching epidemic proportions. A Government commission on combating HIV/AIDS had been set up, and 2002 had been declared the year of fighting AIDS in the Ukraine.  His country had also formulated a strategy for effective response, outlined in the national programme for the prevention of HIV/AIDS, 2001-2003, and established a national alliance to fight the disease, with an emphasis on prevention  users, young people, women and the military had been targeted.

Ukraine, he said, wanted the United Nations system to be fully mobilized to fight the epidemic.  He was satisfied with the concrete measures taken by the Organization’s various agencies, funds and programmes to build on national capacity and strengthen HIV/AIDS programmes at the country level.  The UNAIDS had been very active and effective in his country.  He was also pleased with the establishment of the Global Fund.  However, he felt that the Declaration of Commitment should not be regarded as the final destination, but a platform for building a global partnership against the epidemic. He recommended a one-day debate at the fifty-eighth session of the General Assembly to discuss and review progress on follow-up activities to the Declaration of Commitment.

AHMED TAHIR BADURI (Eritrea) said the Secretary-General’s warning that in the absence of the international community’s substantial strengthening of the global response to HIV/AIDS, 45 million new infections were projected by the year 2010 was disturbing.  The growing global HIV/AIDS crisis would be a real threat unless implementation of the Declaration was given priority. 

Eritrea had expressly declared the fight against HIV/AIDS its top priority, he said.  A National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) had been established, through which a multisectoral response to HIV/AIDS had been organized.  The NACP estimated that 60,000 to 70,000 Eritreans were living with HIV infection, but that a high percentage of the population, across age and work categories, perceived little to no risk of infection.  Because HIV/AIDS spread fastest in conditions of instability and powerlessness, Eritrea had quickly adopted measures to prevent the rapid spread of the epidemic in emergency and post-emergency situations following the Ethiopian invasion of May 2000.

Eritrea’s five-year plan to combat HIV/AIDS underlined the importance of a multisectoral and multilateral approach to the disease, he added.  The Ministry of Health had joined in partnership with other government sectors as well as non-governmental organizations, community-based institutions, faith-based organizations, the private sector and other elements of civil society to respond to the epidemic.  However, in order to contribute significantly to the prevention of HIV/AIDS transmission, additional resources were needed.  Eritrea appealed to donor community for resources and drugs to make its HIV/AIDS programme a success.

ADRIANA PULIDO SANTANA (Venezuela) said the General Assembly special session on HIV/AIDS had broken the silence that had surrounded the disease for so many years, and a milestone had been achieved.  The special session’s Declaration of Commitment was a historic document which sought to attack the problem comprehensively, even seeking to ensure the rights of those who were affected.  It created a new vision for poor countries with affected populations, creating a window of hope for the millions who appeared doomed.

She said the Secretary-General’s report provided a panoramic view of strategies to combat the epidemic.  Much remained to be done, and she urged countries to make the necessary financial provisions to deal with the problem. Indirectly, globalization was contributing to the spread of the disease through migration and tourism.  It was important that steps be taken nationally to contain the disease and to fulfil the goals of the Declaration of Commitment.  It was also important for the costs of antiretroviral drugs to be reduced to allow for the treatment of HIV/AIDS victims.

Prevention, she said, was a fundamental part of the strategy to combat HIV/AIDS, as was clearly demonstrated in Senegal, Thailand and Uganda.  It was also necessary to take steps to counter the stigma that continued to be attached to the disease, which affected women in greater numbers.  Very little progress had been made in attacking that aspect of the problem.  The rights of those affected had to be acknowledged and respected.  Venezuela attached great importance to eliminating the stigma and preventing the discrimination practised against those who had the disease.

CHRISTIAN WENAWESER (Liechtenstein) said that HIV/AIDS should not be considered merely a social and health problem.  Rather, it has strong implications for economic and development issues.  In fighting any scourge, the costs of prevention were infinitesimally smaller than the financial and social costs of failing to prevent.  At the same time, while the causes facilitating –- and the most effective means of fighting -– the spread of HIV/AIDS might vary across cultures and societies, factors such as poverty, inadequate access to education and health care and discrimination against those living with HIV/AIDS would always contribute to its destructive spread.

Both the consequences and eradication of HIV/AIDS were linked with human rights, he said.  In addition to the discrimination faced by infected individuals, there was often a misconception that providing assistance to those suffering from HIV/AIDS facilitated its further spread.  In fact, such assistance helped prevent the spread of the disease by providing information and health care to those infected.  Only by ending discrimination would that misconception and its consequences be countered.

Any child born infected by HIV represented an inexcusable failure of the effort to protect the most vulnerable from the scourge, he added.  Access to reproductive and prenatal health care played an essential role in reducing the number of those born infected.  Moreover, when prevention failed, the inherent right of the infected to health care needed to be recognized.  The core component of treatment was the development of, and access to, medications able to contain and cure HIV/AIDS.  While protecting intellectual property rights was necessary to encourage the development of more potent medicines, they should not become impediments to the realization of the right to health.

RANI ISMAIL HADI BIN ALI (Malaysia) supported the Secretary-General's call for global research priorities to reflect the HIV/AIDS pandemic's "disproportionate" impact on low- and middle-income countries.  The proportion of research funding devoted to HIV-related questions should be significantly increased.  He said that States should develop national strategic plans to combat HIV/AIDS, and integrate that focus into national development plans and poverty reduction strategies.

Malaysia, he said, had established an Inter-Sectoral Committee, charged with formulating policies and activities as well as coordinating a nationwide AIDS prevention and control programme.  He noted that every individual Malaysian state had its own coordinating committee on AIDS, responsible for ensuring the cohesiveness of local activities.  An inter-ministerial committee had also been established, bringing together 14 ministries as well as the Malaysian AIDS Council, an umbrella organization of NGOs working together to fight HIV/AIDS.

He said that Government strategies to combat HIV/AIDS included a surveillance programme, voluntary and routine HIV screening among vulnerable groups, screening of blood and blood products, prevention through educating the public, inter-agency collaboration, and treatment, care and support.

BOB JALANG’O (Kenya) said that while the report of the Secretary-General indicated that most countries had developed national AIDS strategies, they were hampered in many cases by inadequate resources and technical capacity.  The strategies had limited impact because they lacked a comprehensive approach.  Because prevention programmes affected less than 20 per cent of those most at risk, it was clear that the fight against the scourge was far from being won.  The rapid spread of the disease made it impossible for developing countries to keep pace.  However, sub-Saharan African countries were using their scarce resources to combat the disease.  He stressed the need not to neglect child-related issues in prioritizing economic and social objectives.  In Kenya alone, there were now

1.8 million children who had been orphaned by the disease.

He said Kenya had submitted a proposal to the Global Fund for $173,422, which would allow it to upscale existing interventions.  His country had also strengthened its monitoring and evaluation systems, taken steps to obtain generic antiretroviral drugs and was doing all possible to ensure a wider distribution of those drugs, among other things.  Particular attention was being paid to the needs of orphans and vulnerable children.  Their right to education was being prioritized.

Kenya had also mandated all ministries to set up AIDS Control Units with the responsibility of sensitizing their employees, as well as advocacy and prevention.  In addition, people living with AIDS had been mobilized and were operating under an umbrella organization known as the Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS in Kenya.  He also mentioned that corporate entities were engaged in the fight, joining together to assist employees who fell sick with the disease.  Even politicians were serving as advocates, as they went about campaigning for the

2002 election.

ISMAEL A. GASPAR MARTINS (Angola), speaking on behalf of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), said the HIV/AIDS epidemic was killing a large percentage of the region’s population, with serious implications for economic growth and for efforts to eradicate poverty.  Because the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the SADC countries was so high, gains in life expectancy had been seriously eroded.  The majority of young people in the 15-to-24 age range were the most highly infected, with more negative implications for girls than boys.  In Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, for instance, 24 to 36 per cent of the population between the ages of 15 and 49 was living with AIDS, he said. 

The SADC’s response to the epidemic, contained in the SADC HIV/AIDS Strategic Framework and Programme of Action:  2002–2004, addressed some of the key areas, among them leadership, partnership and resources.  The SADC believed that strong political leadership was a central need if countries were to succeed in their response to the HIV pandemic.  The leadership of the region had been, and continued to be, forthcoming and actively involved in mobilizing their nations to combat the scourge, he said.  Partnership with the private sector, civil society and the donor community represented one aspect that had yielded positive results in the fight against HIV/AIDS. 

The collaborative partnership established with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Subregional Development Centre for Southern Africa in Lusaka had further strengthened the SADC HIV/AIDS response through the ongoing incorporation of the gender perspective.  Hence, the SADC Gender Unit was also a critical actor in the response, considering the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on women and girls, he said.  Although those initiatives went beyond sustaining wider levels of HIV/AIDS awareness, the geographical and numerical coverage of the interventions remained the key to the success of such initiatives.  The problem of HIV/AIDS orphans was also on the rise in the SADC, because of escalating mortality among HIV/AIDS parents.  Provision of care, support and treatment of the disease remained expensive because of the high cost of drugs.

In that connection, SADC was convinced that the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria could provide substantial help in implementing the Declaration of Commitment.

IRMA LOEMBAN TOBING-KLEIN (Suriname) said that 15 years ago no one would have anticipated a disease as dangerous as HIV/AIDS, one for which a cure would be so difficult to find and medicines so expensive to obtain.  When Suriname registered its first AIDS deaths in the late 1980s, its people had been afraid to mention the name of the disease, yet today it was no different from other countries -- too many young people were infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.

She said that in 1990, the Government had begun to plan how to protect people from HIV/AIDS, creating a national AIDS programme and establishing non-governmental organizations.  They included the Mamio Namen Projekt, aimed at raising awareness through quilt making; PEPSUR, led by and aimed at reaching youth in and out of school; the Max Linder Foundation, focused on commercial sex workers and their families; the Claudia A. Foundation, working in low-income neighbourhoods; and the “Parel” (Pearl), which took care of AIDS orphans.

In addition, she said, governmental and non-governmental health organizations had executed programmes for those infected and affected, legislation had been mainstreamed to consider HIV/AIDS as a sexually transmitted disease and efforts had been made to facilitate access to anti-HIV/AIDS medications.  On the regional level, Suriname had participated in projects of the Council for Human and Social Development of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). 

ENCHO GOSPODINOV, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said that in the more than 50 countries hardest hit by AIDS, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched new HIV/AIDS programmes, scaled up existing ones, and incorporated an HIV/AIDS component into current health activities.

He said the “pockets of success” could be seen in many places.  The Red Cross of Uganda had been promoting blood safety in partnership with the Blood Transfusion Service.  In South Africa, the Red Cross youth initiative was targeting peer education for youth.

In response to South Africa’s food crisis, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched an appeal for $61.6 million to help a minimum of 1.3 million people.  The Norwegian Government supported this effort, and the Norwegian Red Cross provided more than 200 heavy-duty trucks for the International Federation’s joint efforts with the World Food Programme.

He also said that similar programmes were taking place in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.  Skills development trainings had taken place for Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies from the Middle East and North Africa, where concrete programmes were being structured.

He said that in implementing the Declaration of Commitment, and as a contribution to the objective set by the special session, the Federation had launched the global campaign “The Truth About AIDS:  Pass It On”, a long-term effort to eventually eliminate HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination.  This was done jointly with the Global Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS and Saatchi & Saatchi.

He said that, “being realists”, his delegation saw that there was much more to be done, and that acting alone would not solve the problem.

* *** *