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THE PRESIDENT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR COMBAT AGAINST AIDS
[01:06 pm] 01 December, 2006
Message by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the
Occasion of World AIDS Day.
In the 25 years since the first case was reported,
AIDS has changed the world. It has killed 25 million
people, and infected 40 million more. It has become
the world’s leading cause of death among both women
and men aged 15 to 59. It has inflicted the single
greatest reversal in the history of human development.
In other words, it has become the greatest challenge
of our generation.
For far too long, the world was in denial. But over
the past 10 years, attitudes have changed. The world
has started to take the fight against AIDS as
seriously as it deserves.
Financial resources are being committed like never
before, people have access to antiretroviral treatment
like never before, and several countries are managing
to fight the spread like never before. Now, as the
number of infections continues unabated, we need to
mobilize political will like never before.
The creation of UNAIDS a decade ago, bringing together
the strengths and resources of many different parts of
the United Nations family, was a milestone in
transforming the way the world responds to AIDS. And
five years ago, all UN Member States reached a new
milestone by adopting the Declaration of Commitment —
containing a number of specific, far-reaching and
time-bound targets for fighting the epidemic.
That same year, as I made HIV/AIDS a personal priority
in my work as Secretary-General, I called for the
creation of a `war-chest’ of an additional seven to
ten billion dollars a year. Today, I am deeply proud
to be Patron of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and
Malaria, which has channelled more than 2.8 billion
dollars to programmes across the globe. Recently, we
have seen significant additional funding from
bilateral donors, national treasuries, civil society
and other sources. Annual investments in the response
to AIDS in low-and middle-income countries now stand
at more than eight billion dollars. Of course, much
more is needed; by 2010 total needs for a
comprehensive AIDS response will exceed 20 billion
dollars a year. But we have at least made a start on
getting the resources and strategies in place.
Because the response has started to gain real
momentum, the stakes are higher now than ever before.
We cannot risk letting the advances that have been
achieved unravel; we must not jeopardize the heroic
efforts of so many. The challenge now is to deliver on
all the promises that have been made — including the
Millennium Development Goal, agreed by all the world’s
Governments, of halting and beginning to reverse the
spread of HIV by 2015. Leaders at every level must
recognize that halting the spread of AIDS is also a
prerequisite for reaching most of the other Goals,
which together form the international community’s
agreed blueprint for building a better world in the
21st century. Leaders must hold themselves accountable
— and be held accountable by all of us.
Accountability — the theme of this World AIDS Day —
requires every President and Prime Minister, every
parliamentarian and politician, to decide and declare
that `AIDS stops with me’. It requires them to
strengthen protection for all vulnerable groups —
whether people living with HIV, young people, sex
workers, injecting drug users, or men who have sex
with men. It requires them to work hand in hand with
civil society groups, who are so crucial to the
struggle. It requires them to work for real, positive
change that will give more power and confidence to
women and girls, and transform relations between women
and men at all levels of society.
But accountability applies not only to those who hold
positions of power. It also applies to all of us. It
requires business leaders to work for HIV prevention
in the workplace and in the wider community, and to
care for affected workers and their families. It
requires health workers, community leaders and
faith-based groups to listen and care, without passing
judgement. It requires fathers, husbands, sons and
brothers to support and affirm the rights of women. It
requires teachers to nurture the dreams and
aspirations of girls. It requires men to help ensure
that other men assume their responsibility — and
understand that real manhood means protecting others
from risk. And it requires every one of us help bring
AIDS out of the shadows, and spread the message that
silence is death.
I will soon be stepping down as Secretary-General of
the United Nations. But as long as I have strength, I
will keep spreading that message. That is why World
AIDS Day will always be special to me. On this World
AIDS Day, let us vow to keep the promise — not only
this day, or this year, or next year — but every day,
until the epidemic is conquered.
Kofi Annan
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress