UNGASS 2006

“Acknowledging the particular role and significant contribution of people living with HIV/AIDS, young people and civil society actors in addressing the problem of HIV/AIDS in all its aspects, and recognizing that their full involvement and participation in the design, planning, implementation and evaluation of programmes is crucial to the development of effective responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic…..”

Despite some recently reported progress in expanding access to HIV prevention and treatment, the pandemic continues to worsen because HIV programmes are failing to reach the very people and communities that are most vulnerable to HIV.

The UN General Assembly held an unprecedented special session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS) in 2001. The meeting generated a series of time-bound targets for action, set out in a Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS. It was duly adopted by leaders from 189 countries.

The Declaration is a comprehensive framework to halt and to reverse the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2010 through joint governmental and civil society leadership. As the most significant and specific set of promises on HIV/AIDS to date, the DoC provides the most effective foundation for holding governments and other leaders accountable on HIV/AIDS.

Each year, the UN General Assembly evaluates international progress in implementing the Declaration, and a major assessment is due in mid-2006. This site provides civil society organisations around the world with the information and materials we need to play our part in that evaluation, and in holding our leaders accountable, as effectively as possible.

The appalling track record of providing essential HIV-related services to the people and communities who need them, demands that the UNGASS 2006 review meeting is open and authentic.

Civil society is essentially invited to participate in such UN events and processes as a side-show to the government/UN discussions. Remarkably, the unique roles of people living with HIV/AIDS, young people and other civil society stakeholders in advocacy, policy-setting, programme implementation and service delivery remain insufficiently articulated, acknowledged or understood.

In response, a group of civil society organisations initiated a specific proposal to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS in early-2005 urging them to establish a formal mechanism for submission of written and/or orally presented information and reports by civil society on implementation of the Declaration in their countries as input for the 2006 evaluation.