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Towards 'zero discrimination'
While welcoming the solid progress being made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, United Nations officials marked World AIDS Day with urgent appeals for the international community to work even harder to end stigma, discrimination and complacency, to stop new HIV infections among children and to ensure access to care and treatment for all those that need it. “On this World AIDS Day, I am more optimistic than ever.
Much of the world is accelerating progress in responding to HIV,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, with major drops in new infections and deaths and progress in realising the target of ensuring 15 million people have access to antiretroviral treatment by 2015. “This is crucial to halting and reversing the AIDS epidemic for good,” he added.
But, the UN chief continued, as revealed in the UNAIDS 2013 World AIDS Day Report, there are still worrying signals that some regions and countries are falling behind. While advances are being made in reaching vulnerable populations through efforts to eliminate stigma and discrimination, there is still much to do to end this problem.
“To create conditions for an AIDS-free generation, we must also step up efforts to stop new HIV infections among children and ensure access to treatment for all mothers living with HIV,” said the Secretary-General, particularly urging action to end the discrimination and violence against women which cause terrible harm and increase risk of HIV infection and death from AIDS.
Meanwhile, at a World AIDS Day event earlier in Melbourne, Australia Mr. Sidibé and UNAIDS Global Advocate for Zero Discrimination, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, previewed the zero discrimination campaign, calling for a global transformation. The initiative will launch the new Zero Discrimination Day on 1 March 2014, adopting the butterfly as the transformative symbol for zero discrimination.
Source: UN.ORG.
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