Alliance steps up campaign for HIV/AIDS treatment
30 June 2005
Failure to provide HIV/AIDS treatment to the 6 million people in the world who need it is one of the great injustices of our time and must be addressed as a matter of urgency, according to the Alliance’s Executive Director, Dr Alvaro Bermejo, speaking at a House of Commons meeting on 15 June.
“Rising to the challenge: the UK Government’s leadership on HIV/AIDS in 2005: G8 and EU presidencies” was organised by the Alliance, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on AIDS and the Stop AIDS Campaign. The aim of the meeting was to bring together policy makers and civil society to explore how the UK can bring about HIV/AIDS change in its dual roles as President of the G8 and the European Union.
Joining Dr Bermejo in addressing the meeting were Dr Jim Kim of the World Health Organization, Dr Alice Welbourn of the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS and Robin Gorna, the UK Department for International Development’s Global AIDS Policy Team Leader. Neil Gerrard MP chaired the meeting.
“This year’s G8 meeting is a critical moment for HIV/AIDS. The Summit provides an unrivalled opportunity to extend the momentum created by the World Health Organization’s ‘3 by 5’ initiative by replacing it with a strategy for universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment and care by 2010,” Dr Bermejo said.
“3 by 5 has established much of the technical groundwork to scale up access to treatment, but it is fundamentally hampered by a lack of resources and political commitment. A commitment from the leaders of the eight richest countries in the world would make a vital contribution to the resources and the political will that’s needed to put people living with HIV/AIDS on treatment.
“The G8 has proven it is capable of bold action – in 2001 in Genoa it launched the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, now providing resources in 128 countries, and we’re hoping the legacy of its forthcoming meeting in the UK will be as impressive.”
EU requests
While calling for the European Union to strive for universal access to treatment, Dr Bermejo highlighted the UK Government’s unique opportunity in its EU Presidency role to advocate for a comprehensive and evidence-based approach to prevention, stating the importance of continuing and further enhancing prevention responses with the roll out of treatment.
Dr Bermejo also asked the UK government in its EU Presidency role to ensure that HIV/AIDS is prioritised in both the new Development Policy Statement and a communication on a European Union Africa Initiative, the development and adoption of both of which fall under the UK term. He called for the EU to address HIV/AIDS as both an exceptional and cross cutting issue and to ensure that HIV/AIDS work is adequately resourced through the new EU Programme for Action to Confront AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Parliamentary Early Day Motion (EDM)
After the event, Neil Gerrard MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on AIDS sponsored an EDM calling on the UK government to do all that it can to secure a commitment at July’s G8 meeting in Scotland to universal access to treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS and for the resources to make the commitment a reality in the developing world.
The Alliance has subsequently written to all members of the UK Parliament calling on them to demonstrate their support for universal treatment and the fight against AIDS by putting their names to the motion.
