People living with and affected by HIV and their communities must be at the centre of the response to the global AIDS epidemic, which has claimed more than 33 million people globally, speakers said today as the General Assembly continued its high-level meeting on ending the scourge by 2030.
Warning that the international community must not let its current battle against COVID-19 cost its war against HIV/AIDS, world leaders detailed national efforts to tackle the threat to public health posed by one virus despite the shocks reverberating from the other, as the General Assembly continued its high‑level meeting on HIV/AIDS today.
Countries must embrace hard lessons learned over four decades of the HIV epidemic — including the need for human rights-based action focused on populations most at risk — as they confront the “colliding pandemics” of COVID-19 and its fallout, which threaten to derail crucial public health gains, ministers stressed during the second day of the high-level General Assembly meeting on HIV/AIDS.
World leaders in the General Assembly today committed to “urgent and transformative action” to end the gender inequalities, restrictive laws and multiple forms of discrimination that perpetuate the global AIDS epidemic, adopting a lengthy Political Declaration that spells out measures to stop the disease in its tracks by 2030.
Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks at the opening of the high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS today:
With a spirit of hope on the horizon, the General Assembly today elected Abdulla Shahid, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Maldives, to serve as President of its seventy-sixth session, while also electing the Bureaus of its six Main Committees and 22 members of the Economic and Social Council.
More than 271,000 people have been impacted and over 26,000 displaced by monsoon-related flash floods and landslides in south-western Sri Lanka, humanitarian affairs officials say. The impacts of the south-west monsoon come as Sri Lanka works to mitigate the environmental impact of a sinking cargo ship near Colombo.
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks on the election of the President of the seventy-sixth session of the General assembly, today:
Stronger measures are needed to prevent people in positions of power from misusing their authority for their personal gain, speakers said today as the General Assembly concluded its thirty-second special session on the fight against corruption.
Stressing that no country is exempt from corruption, Ministers and high‑level officials from Member States called for greater commitment and collaboration at the national and international levels in the fight against the scourge, as the General Assembly continued its thirty-second special session on the issue.
