UN General Assembly declaration at critical stage. Need urget action

[Guest guest]

UN General Assembly declaration at critical stage. Need urget action

Dear Forum ,

During the last few days of deliberation at the UN General Assembly

Special Session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS) and after reviewing the four

preliminary drafts on the political declaration, which are the basis

for the final version of the declaration to be adopted at the UN

General assembly, I would like to suggest the following:

- to ensure that at least the commitment made in the 2001

declaration are not diluted .The strength of the negotiation teams

lies on the UN Secretary General Kofi n's note which

explicitly mentions vulnerable groups like MSM, IDU, SW which are

part of the solution. The vulnerable groups unfortunately are not

mentioned in the draft. The Declaration runs the risk of

being " regressive " which will be a failure .

- Unfortunately there is absolutely no reference to terms like "

Harm Reduction " in the draft document Supplies like Condom ,

Needles and Syringes, Buprenorphine , Methadone substitution, needs

to be not only included and mentioned , but target set for future

review .( Methadone has been included in the WHO essential drug

list )

- The subsequent review process needs to be transparent involving

the Civil Society Organization (CSO)s

- Universal access giving equal opportunity for every one to access

education, information and prevention including more than 80%

coverage for access to treatment and care.

-Ensure adequate resources from the international donors as well as

national budgetary allocations for HIV/AIDS to reduce the resource

gap

Dr. S I Ahmed,

(APS, India )

Part of UNGASS Indian Delegation in UN , NYC ,

e-mail: <siahmed60@...>