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U.N. Special Session Adopts Declaration of Commitment
The U.N. General Assembly special session on HIV/AIDS ended Wednesday with the adoption of a final document.
Entitled "Global crisis, Global action," the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, which was adopted as the final document of the three-day forum, contains significant targets and strategies for combating HIV/AIDS.
Deeply concerned that the global HIV/AIDS epidemic constitutes one of the most formidable challenges to human development and security, the special session of the assembly declared its commitment to address the HIV/AIDS crisis by taking action in the areas of leadership, prevention, care, support and treatment, reducing vulnerability, children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, alleviating social and economic impact.
"The Declaration provides us with a clear strategy for tackling the crisis," said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan at a press conference at U.N. headquarters in New York.
Apart from the Declaration itself, Annan said the session is " historic for the level of attendance, which shows that the world is at long last waking up to the gravity of the HIV/AIDS crisis."
"It is clear that all political leaders in important areas of both the developed and the developing countries are now taking this challenge very seriously," Annan said, "but I am perhaps even more impressed by the strong participation of non-governmental activists," he said.
"There is hope," President of the General Assembly Harri Holkeri said in a closing statement, "we have clearly reached a turning point, either we will reach out to those who need this hope most, or we will be held responsible for not acting."
Saying the Declaration of Commitment a "battle plan" against AIDS, he said: "by adopting the Declaration, the world has made a commitment to scale up efforts with specific targets and time frames in all critical areas including prevention, care, treatment and support."
More than 2,000 representatives from some 500 activist groups, service organizations, people living with HIV/AIDS and the private sector attended the special session. Several dialogue sessions have been held between non-governmental organizations and governments to allow wider input into the Declaration of Commitment.
The three-day session, convened amid growing alarms on the accelerating lethal epidemic and its global impact, is at the highest political level ever held on the topic at the U.N..
More than 20 heads of state and government have attended the session.
According to U.N. estimates, HIV/AIDS has infected some 58 million people worldwide, over 22 million of them have been killed for the past 20 years. The vast majority of the 36.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS is located in sub-Saharan Africa, where 3.8 million people became newly infected just last year. That region is also host to over 90 percent of the world's 13 million AIDS orphans.
Both wealthy and impoverished nations announced contributions for AIDS totaling about $700 million.
The United States has already pledged $200 million and leaders of a key U.S. congressional committee agreed Tuesday to push for more than $1.3 billion to a global campaign against AIDS. It is expected to receive full committee approval Wednesday.
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