Reviewing progress, renewing commitment: An overview of the 2006 High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS

UNGASS

2006 marks the five-year anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS by the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS). In the first worldwide commitment to fighting HIV and AIDS, the declaration acknowledged that HIV and AIDS constitute a global emergency. It set time-bound goals and targets aimed at stopping and reversing the spread of HIV and AIDS, and covered broad areas such as leadership, prevention, care, support and treatment, and human rights.

Specifically, it declared that leadership by governments in combating HIV and AIDS is essential and their efforts should be complemented by the full and active participation of civil society, the business community and the private sector. The declaration also outlined how gender equality and the empowerment of women is fundamental to reducing vulnerabilities and ensuring full entitlement to human rights.

2006 High Level Meeting on AIDS

A follow-up meeting on the implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS will take place from 31 May–2 June 2006 at the United Nations in New York, USA.

As many governments have fallen short of achieving targets set for 2003 and 2005, the meeting will be an important occasion. The aims of this session will be to:

  • review and recommit to implementing the Declaration of Commitment;
  • evaluate challenges and obstacles; and
  • reassess what needs to be done in order to effectively combat the pandemic and generate the necessary political will.

UN Secretary General Kofi Anan has produced an assessment of progress in meeting the 2001 commitments entitled Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS: five years later. The Secretary General’s report will be used to inform discussions at the meeting.

Official progress reports submitted by many countries on how they are meeting their commitments were used in the preparation of the Secretary General’s report.

Shadow reports were produced by civil society organisations in many countries.

The extent of civil society participation in the meeting is expected to be unprecedented. For the first time, a person living with HIV will address the General Assembly plenary – usually reserved for Member States and UN officials. There will also be a civil society hearing, which provides civil society an opportunity to exchange views with Member States.

Towards Universal Access

In the second half of 2005, three important developments coincided that continue to shape global AIDS policy. The World Health Organization's campaign to get 3 million people on treatment by the end of the year (3 by 5), the G8’s historic commitment to ‘universal access to HIV treatment, prevention and care by 2010’ and the United Nations' World Summit’s endorsement of the universal access target all led to a renewed and expanded global commitment on access to comprehensive HIV services.

A United Nations General Assembly resolution adopted on 23 December 2005 requested UNAIDS and its co-sponsors to assist in “facilitating…country-driven processes… for scaling up HIV prevention, treatment, care and support with the aim of coming as close as possible to the goal of universal access to treatment by 2010 for all those who need it.”

The United Nations’ resolution built on a number of international commitments, including:

A Global Steering Committee subsequently produced a report Scaling up HIV prevention, treatment, care and support that the UN Secretary General has presented to the General Assembly. This report and the debates on its content – in particular the national targets it recommends – will form a substantial part of the deliberations at the UNGASS meeting.

A draft political declaration has also been prepared for consideration by the UN.

Civil society organisations have been involved in lobbying for a strong declaration and have jointly produced a list of recommendations.

The International HIV/AIDS Alliance is calling on Member States to support three priority issues:

  • A global target of 10 million on treatment by 2010
  • Better core national targets
  • A global HIV and human rights action plan.

Achieving Universal Access by 2010: the Alliance’s calls on Member States at the High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS, June 2006 sets out the details of the Alliance’s calls.

The Alliance’s calls on Member States was informed by a global consultation it undertook with its partners. The results of that consultation have been published as Universal access to HIV preevention, care and treatment by 2010: What does it mean for civil society?

The Alliance’s Joseph O’Reilly will be posting daily updates from the High Level Meeting in New York to our dedicated blog.