New Delhi: A three-day high level follow-up meeting on the implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, adopted by UN Member States in 2001 at the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, will take place from May 31 at the United Nations in New York, USA.
This year, the UN Secretary-General will present a report to the General Assembly on progress made until the end of 2005, when the first set of targets in the Declaration were due. The 2006 High-Level Meeting on AIDS will be a comprehensive review of the progress achieved in realising the targets set out in the Declaration, a UNAIDS release said here.
The meeting will also identify common challenges to scaling up and sustaining national AIDS responses. Member States will consider recommendations on how to scale up HIV prevention, 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 2006 High-Level Meeting on AIDS will involve all sectors of the international community, governments, civil society and the private sector. Almost 800 civil society groups have been granted special accreditation to the meeting, an unprecedented number for such a gathering. And many more are expected to attend as part of organisations already accredited to the UN or as part of national delegations.
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A civil society hearing will be held, providing an opportunity for civil society to exchange views with Member States. For the first time, a person living with HIV will address the General Assembly plenary.
Other speakers include the President of the General Assembly, the UN Secretary-General and the Executive Director of UNAIDS. The 2006 High-Level Meeting on AIDS will feature a series of panel discussions as well as roundtables covering diverse topics.
The panels are expected to focus on the themes like 'Breaking the cycle of HIV infection for sustainable AIDS responses', 'Overcoming capacity constraints that inhibit current emergency responses and the movement towards universal access to antiretroviral therapy', 'Ending the increased feminisation of AIDS', 'Sustainable and predictable financing for scaled-up AIDS responses' and 'Overcoming stigma and discrimination and changing the way societies respond to people living with HIV.'
Building on these discussions, a political declaration will be adopted at the close of the meeting on June 2. The Co-chairs for the negotiations on the political declaration are Ambassador
Laxanachantorn Laohaphan, Permanent Representative of the Mission of Thailand to the UN and Ambassador Christopher Hackett, Permanent Representative of the Mission of Barbados to the UN.
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