UN Declaration on HIV/AIDS causes outrage among NGOs

New Delhi, June 5 (UNI) Civil society organisations have expressed outrage over the outcome of the UN High Level review on HIV/AIDS stating that the declaration lacks any global target on treatment, resources and prevention.

''We are furious. Vulnerable groups such as intravenous drug users, sex workers and men who have sex with men have been made invisible in the document. In addition, commitment to women's rights has become a subject of controversy, rather than being recognised as a critical component of a pandemic that is increasingly becoming a women's issue,'' said Aditi Sharma, HIV/AIDS Campaign and Policy Coordinator, ActionAid International.

ActionAid International which works hand in hand with 2000 civil society partners, is concerned that the declaration at the UN meet held in New York from May 31 to June 2 does not commit governments to urgently fill the ten billion dollars funding gap needed every year to finance the scaling up towards the goal of universal access.

''Today 40 million HIV positive people have been let down by our governments and the international Community. It is incomprehensible how negotiators could come up with such a weak declaration when we needed urgent action to stop 8500 people dying and 13500 people from becoming infected every year,'' she said.

ActionAid, an NGO bringing relief to 14 million individuals in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Caribbean every year, would step up its campaign to hold governments accountable to delivering on their 2001 commitments as well as the goal of universal access.

''We are determined to fight this pandemic and will mobilise huge coalitions at national level,'' she said.

ActionAid and other organisations have been calling on negotiators to create a viable action plan to back up the goal of providing universal access to all HIV affected people by 2010. Such a plan should have addressed structural barriers such as lack of investment in healthcare, affordable treatment as well as denial of Human Rights of HIV positive women, men and children.

''We are dying, but we are not dead. At this crucial time it seems that the world is giving up on us. How long we have to wait? Do we all have to die before we see justice,'' lamented Beatrice Ware, an HIV positive activist from ActionAid Uganda.

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