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UNGASS 2006 Meeting: Jamaica still has much to do

By Andrea Downer, Freelance Writer

The Jamaican government’s failure to significantly reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS particularly among women and young people under the age of 25, could severely affect the country’s ability to meet several Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

United Nations representatives who addressed world leaders and their representatives at a United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, (UNGASS), in New York last week, issued the dire warning as they led talks aimed at renewing the global commitment to the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS. According to the UN, unless world leaders take decisive steps to reverse the global epidemic, the world will fail to meet the new DoC targets set for review in 2010, as well as the MDGs to halt and reverse the spread of AIDS by 2015. The UN says this has serious implications for developing countries like Jamaica .

“Without major progress in tackling AIDS, global efforts to achieve the MDGs of reducing poverty, hunger and childhood mortality will similarly fall short of agreed targets. Countries whose development efforts are already flagging, because of AIDS will continue to weaken, potentially threatening social stability and national security,” Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General, told delegates at the high-level meeting which began last Tuesday and ended on Friday.

Ten representatives from Jamaica were among world leaders and civil society representatives from more than 100 United Nations Member States that met over four days to evaluate the progress made in achieving the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS (DoC) and recommit to fight the spread of the disease. The DoC, which was put into effect five years ago at a United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS) established time-bound targets to be achieved by 2005 and 2010.

However, civil society and persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), feel that they had little input in the new Political Declaration, which was developed at the meeting. They also expressed little faith that the new goals would adequately address the plight of PLWHAs and persons at risk of become infected with HIV, as crucial issues such as treatment and prevention and protection of the interest of vulnerable groups had been given little priority.

In a joint release issued last Thursday by civil society organizations and people living with HIV/AIDS, the two groups threatened to distance themselves from what they described as a “seriously flawed (negotiation) process and expressed anger that civil society was shut out of negotiations even though they had been invited to participate in the meetings. The release stated that world governments at the meeting failed to set “new and ambitious targets and accused governments of playing political games rather that setting a clear path to address the new realities and needs in the response to AIDS for the next five years.

“Governments are choosing political expediency over real accountability and disregarding the basic human rights of people living with HIV/AIDS and their communities,” Laura Villa of Mexico stated in the release.

International civil society also lashed out at the United Nations, accusing the world body of doing nothing, while, “many of the most important recommendations that civil society activists from around the world have been advocating for over several months, was rejected by governments.”

Unlike their international counterparts, civil society leaders in Jamaica are more optimistic about the effectiveness of the new draft declaration.

Tony Hron, advocate with Jamaica Network of Seropositives, JN+, stated that while there seems to be a high level of dissatisfaction among international civil society members about the new UNGASS draft declaration on HIV/AIDS, the document will have to be reviewed by civil society in Jamaica in order to determine if and how it will affect the country’s local prevention and control efforts.

“We have our own goals and objectives that were influenced by the first DoC of 2001 as well as the unique needs of the situation in Jamaica . It is therefore possible that our local commitments are stronger than the language in the new document,” Mr. Hron reasoned. “Regardless of any weak language in the new document, we can set whatever targets or standards for prevention and control that are deemed in the best interest of Jamaica ,” he continued.

However, Mr. Hron conceded the new declaration might not be a very powerful advocacy tool as the absence of strong commitments has robbed civil society of one point of leverage, which could be effectively used to lobby governments for higher levels of achievement.

World leaders at the meeting expressed grave concern at the high rate of HIV infection among children and young people under the age of 25 and pledged to secure up to US$23 billion dollars by 2010 to support rapidly scaled AIDS responses in developing countries, which should be supplemented by additional resources from international donor countries and national budgets.

In the Draft Political Declaration, world leaders agreed to place priority on empowering women, with an aim to decreasing their vulnerability to contracting HIV/AIDS. Stating that they “remain deeply concerned by the overall expansion and feminization of the (HIV/AIDS) pandemic and the fact that women now represent half of all people living with HIV…..and that in this regard, recognize that gender inequalities and all forms of violence against women and girls increase their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.”

According to the draft declaration, half of all new infections are among children and young people under the age 25 and currently, there are 2.3 million children living with HIV/AIDS.

Jamaica’s 10 member delegation to UNGASS included, Horace Dalley, Minister of Health, Dr. Peter Figueroa, Chief Epidemiology and AIDS, National HIV/STI Control Programme, Ministry of Health, Nancy Anderson, Legal Officer, Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights, The president of Jamaica Network of Seropositives, (JN+), Verona Dawkins of the National AIDS Committee, two youth representatives and other government officials.

The article above is part of a five-country series on the Caribbean ’s HIV/AIDS response since individual governments signed the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS Declaration of Commitment in 2001. This is a collaborative effort between Panos Caribbean and The Gleaner Newspaper.