U.N. Delegates Meet to Discuss HIV/AIDS Declaration to be Approved During U.N. Special Session Next Month
Representatives from more than 100 countries gathered yesterday for a five-day special session to negotiate a declaration United Nations members are expected to approve during the General Assembly special session on HIV/AIDS next month, the Associated Press reports. The declaration largely reflects the goal of reversing the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2015 that U.N. members agreed upon in September at the U.N. Millennium Summit. As it stands, the draft declaration, written by Penny Wensley, Australia's ambassador, and Ibra Deguene Ka, Senegal's ambassador, calls for the following:
- Governments to develop by 2003 national strategies and financing plans to combat HIV/AIDS;
- Countries most affected by HIV to develop by 2003 "time targets" that will help them reduce HIV by 25% by 2005 among people ages 15-24;
- All countries to make available by 2005 a "wide range of measures to prevent AIDS";
- Countries to reduce the number of infants infected with HIV by 20% by 2005 and 50% by 2010;
- Countries to develop by 2003 programs to increase the availability of anti-AIDS drugs and to make progress by 2005 in implementing "comprehensive health care programs" (Lederer, Associated Press, 5/21).