Tough timeframe to combat AIDS

UNITED NATIONS, JUNE 28. A major U.N. AIDS conference today approved a battle plan committing nations to fight the killer disease but deleted explicit references to homosexuals, prostitutes and drug users as particularly vulnerable groups. After wrangling for weeks over whether to highlight the groups, the 189-member U.N. General Assembly accepted without a vote a 20-page final declaration at the end of its three-day session on AIDS.

``We worked hard but in fact the real work only starts now,'' said the U.N. General Assembly President, Mr. Harri Holkeri.

``It is not a perfect text. But it is a good text - action oriented and practical,'' said the Australian Ambassador to U.N., Penny Wensley, who led the negotiations along with the Senegalese Ambassador, Ibra Ka.

The declaration sets tough timetables for countries to develop and implement national strategies to combat the spread of HIV, set up prevention programmes and provide access to treatment for all those affected. It states years by which those goals are to be implemented, including the global war chest to set up health programmes in poor nations.

Some 3,000 government officials, activists, drug company executives and AIDS victims themselves converged on the United Nations this week to back a global agenda for tackling the epidemic and to galvanize funds for the 36 million people facing a death sentence from the disease.

The U.N. Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, has urged the world to spend between $7 billions and $10 billions a year in response to the epidemic, compared with about $2 billions currently spent in developing nations, half of it in Brazil alone. African Presidents and Prime Ministers were heavily represented and promised to lead the anti-AIDS campaigns on the continent where 25 million are afflicted with the virus.

Egypt, Pakistan, Libya, Sudan, Iran and other Islamic nations, backed by the Vatican, fought for weeks against naming ``men who have sex with men,'' intravenous drug users, prostitutes and prisoners among the groups particularly vulnerable to AIDS and in need of special attention.

They argued the provision offended religious and cultural sensitivities, and they succeeded in deleting the references. Countries are now told to protect the health ``of those identifiable groups which currently have a high or increased rates of HIV infection''. The Islamic group also deleted a reference to a five-year-old guideline drawn up by the UNAIDS, which organised the conference, because they suggested nations review laws that criminalise homosexuality and provide condoms to prison inmates.

``Homosexuality is one of the main causes of this disease. In fact, God sent the Prophet with a clear message for preventing such practices and banning them,'' the Libyan Ambassador, Abuzed Omar Dorda, told the General Assembly. But Mr. Annan, in answer to questions on gays, said: ``They are human beings with human rights that ought to be respected. They should not face discrimination once they are infected, including being dropped from their jobs or ostracised.'' Women and girls, raped and without protection from their sex partners or philandering husbands, are singled out for special attention.

Mr. Annan acknowledged the fight would not be won in a day but said ``the debate has begun and it's not going to go away''. ``We have set standards against which people can measure their own performance, that the average citizen can use to challenge their Government.''

Much of the debate was over prevention versus treatment, with the declaration setting more goals for preventive campaigns than means of access to the antiretroviral drugs that can keep the virus in check.

- Reuters

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Section  : International
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