Press conference to introduce new unaids special representative

Renowned actress and Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts formally announced at a Headquarters press conference today acceptance of her appointment as Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Special Representative, saying, “I urge people all over the world to join this effort because I, too, am learning that there is a role for each and every one of us” in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The UNAIDS brings together the efforts and resources of 10 United Nations organizations in a global response to HIV and AIDS.  The agencies include the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).  The Joint Programme is committed through five focus areas -– leadership and advocacy, strategic information and technical support, tracking, monitoring and evaluation, civil society engagement and resource mobilization -- to making the money work for those most in need, while ensuring that long-term solutions are put in place for the future.

Introducing Ms. Watts to correspondents was UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director Deborah Landey, who described her as the renowned British-Australian Oscar-nominated actress, who starred in such internationally-acclaimed films as King Kong, The Ring and Mulholland Drive.  As a Special Representative, Ms. Watts would use her enormous talent and profile to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS and give a greater voice to the needs of people living with HIV worldwide.  She had just returned from Zambia, where she met with people living with HIV and visited AIDS programmes.

During her week-long stay, Ms. Landey said, Ms. Watts visited clinics, schools, hospitals and shelters in both urban centres and villages, and spoke with networks of people living with HIV.  She also met with First Lady Maureen Mwanawasa, who was extremely active on the issue, as well as Zambian officials.  Through her determination to make a difference, Ms. Watts would play a key role in strengthening the global AIDS response.  As a strong and passionate advocate for AIDS, she would inspire people to do their part in that fight and help to break down the stigma and discrimination that were the greatest barriers to effectively tackling the epidemic in many countries.

Ms. Landey reminded correspondents that, in two weeks, United Nations Headquarters would host a high-level meeting, which would present an opportunity to review progress made in tackling AIDS since the General Assembly’s special session in 2001.  Ms. Watts would participate in that upcoming session, which would provide her with an opportunity to see what countries had achieved over the past five years in terms of the global scaling up of treatment and support.

Officially launching a new campaign called “4 for everyone” to mark the tenth anniversary of UNAIDS, she said it was aimed at reminding the world that all who needed HIV prevention, treatment, care and support should receive them as those four components were the essential pillars of a comprehensive response to AIDS.  Despite some progress in scaling up prevention and treatment in the past few years, the reality was that fewer than one in five people at risk of becoming infected with HIV had access to prevention services, and only one in five in low- and middle-income countries had access to treatment.

Ms. Watts said it was an honour to serve as a UNAIDS Special Representative and she agreed that the most important message was the need to fight AIDS on a global level.  There was no better place from which to deliver that message than the United Nations.  AIDS had been a disturbing, although not central, concern but recent statistics made it impossible to ignore.  Given the stark realities, it was no longer possible for her to stand on the sidelines.

She said it was hard to believe that 25 million people had already died from AIDS, and nearly 45 million more were now living with HIV.  In fact, during the briefing alone, nearly 300 people -- one baby every minute -- would die and nearly 600 would become HIV-infected.  She was truly privileged to have had the opportunity to visit Zambia and was inspired by the courage and fortitude of those on the front lines of the fight.

AIDS was not just about facts and figures, but about faces and families, she said, adding that she met a grandmother struggling to raise her nine granddaughters in a very, very small hut, having lost her five daughters and their husbands to AIDS.  Children orphaned by AIDS and living on the streets were doing what they could to survive, at risk themselves of becoming infected.  Much more could be done to prevent AIDS.  Treatment was breathing life back into people near death, whose families had dropped them off at centres in wheelbarrows.  There were simply not enough people “fighting this fight” on the ground.  More money, more doctors, more nurses, more clinics, more bicycles and more food were needed.

Above all, she said in reply to a question, she wished to fight stigmatization and discrimination.  That was one of the things that seemed to be hurting everyone in Zambia.  Her new position was a way to spread the word and tell people what she had seen.  Hopefully, they would connect with that truth in the same way as she did.  She also wanted to attend the summit, in the hope that people would follow through with some of the promises they had made and make sure that they kept on giving.

As for plans to return to the field, Ms. Landey said she hoped Ms. Watts would do so as she had unique global visibility and the extent to which she could be a global advocate on the ground was very welcome.

In terms of how many people needing treatment in Zambia were receiving it, an assistant to Ms. Landey said that about one in five were receiving treatment.

Asked if she had spoken to Nicole Kidman, a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), before deciding to take on her new role, Ms. Watts said she had, but that had nothing to do with her decision to become a Special Representative.

Regarding requests for country-specific information about HIV/AIDS, Ms. Landey said UNAIDS was about to produce, in a couple of weeks, a global report containing data about every country in the world.  Correspondents should be able to access that report, which would contain historic information that UNAIDS had never had before.

Asked about the United States Government’s promotion of abstinence as a way of combating HIV/AIDS, Ms. Watts said there were certain places where abstinence was “not an easy thing”.  While it was probably the safest way to avoid infection, it was impossible for certain people to practise it, so she was a believer in the use of contraception/protection.

Ms. Landey said she was extremely concerned about HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe, which was drug-user driven.  The UNAIDS had programmes in many of those countries to support efforts to deal with the epidemic in a region where it was probably growing fastest in the world right now.

As for whether Ms. Watts was preparing another film now, and how much time she could devote to her new “role”, she said she was not currently shooting a film, and her new role was keeping her very busy.  She had a film coming out at the end of the year, and would take as many opportunities as she could to get back to various places in Africa and other countries in need.

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For information media • not an official record