UNAIDS and the Government of Australia have signed a new five-year strategic partnership agreement to advance efforts to respond to HIV in the Asia–Pacific region. The agreement will focus on promoting evidence-informed, sustainable and integrated approaches to responding to HIV that promote innovation and address human rights, discrimination and gender issues.

The agreement highlights a shared vision to end AIDS and builds on the strengths and experiences of both Australia and UNAIDS to form a collaborative partnership. This partnership will enable a robust and sustainable response to HIV which is integrated into the wider context of health and sustainable development in the Asia–Pacific region.

As part of the agreement, Australia will commit AUD 22.5 million (US$ 17.1 million) to UNAIDS over five years from 2018 to 2022 to support UNAIDS in achieving the targets, goals and vision outlined in the UNAIDS Strategy: On the Fast-Track to end AIDS.  

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Jimmie Earl Perry, the first UNAIDS National Goodwill Ambassador for South Africa, has died.

A seasoned singer and performer in theatre productions around the world, Mr Perry was notable for his work in using the creative arts to educate audiences. At the Africa Centre of HIV/AIDS Management at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, he staged HIV educational theatre productions that were performed to more than 3 million people in communities and workplaces nationally and internationally.

At the time of his appointment as UNAIDS National Goodwill Ambassador, Mr Perry said, “If we are to turn this epidemic around, South Africans have to really understand what the virus is, how it is spread, that it is not a death sentence thanks to medical treatment and to put an end to the fear and stigma of living with HIV.”

Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director, said Mr Perry’s appointment in 2009 came at a critical time for the AIDS response in South Africa, with far-reaching policy changes announced by the President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, on World AIDS Day of that year. “I decided to appoint Jimmie Earl Perry as National Goodwill Ambassador because of his capacity to inspire and his willingness to lead and empower others. He had a strong belief in the potential of people to rise above their circumstances and he encouraged the best in everybody he met.”

Mr Sidibé said Mr Perry’s passing was a great loss for the AIDS community. “Jimmie Earl Perry encouraged and inspired my global advocacy and efforts to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030. UNAIDS benefited a great deal from our association with Mr Perry, and we are grateful for his service and dedication. I am humbled and privileged to have counted him as my friend and brother,” he said.

GENEVA, 23 December 2017—UNAIDS warmly welcomes the announcement by the United Nations Secretary-General that Henrietta Holsman Fore has been appointed as the new Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Ms Fore is a champion of economic development, education, health and humanitarian assistance and was the first woman to serve as the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development and as the Director of United States Foreign Assistance.

“We look forward to working closely with Henrietta Holsman Fore and continuing to collaborate with UNICEF on our common goals—stopping new HIV infections among children, ensuring access to HIV treatment and making sure that children living with and affected by HIV get the care and support they need,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS.

UNICEF is a founding Cosponsor of UNAIDS and in 2011 joined UNAIDS, the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and other partners to develop the Global Plan towards the elimination of new HIV infections among children by 2015 and keeping their mothers alive. The plan helped to significantly reduce new HIV infections among children in the countries most affected by HIV.

From 2010 to 2016 there was a 56% decline in new HIV infections among children in eastern and southern Africa. However, access to treatment for children continues to lag behind. Globally, just 43% of children living with HIV had access to life-saving antiretroviral therapy in 2016, compared to 54% of adults. 

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

The 41st meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) is taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 12 to 14 December.

At the opening, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé gave an update on the progress made in the AIDS response and outlined the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. He stressed that despite the progress made AIDS is not yet over and outlined the five key challenges that remain unaddressed—reaching the unreached, protecting young women and girls, ensuring that men have access to services, focusing on the regions that are lagging behind and addressing stigma, discrimination and criminalization.

During the opening session, Mr Sidibé also announced that Michel Kazatchkine will be the Special Adviser to UNAIDS on HIV, Tuberculosis and Hepatitis for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The thematic segment of the PCB meeting will take place on the last day and will focus on accelerating action to end discrimination in health-care settings. The participants will review the evidence of the effects of discrimination in health-care settings on efforts to reach the global HIV prevention and treatment targets and will identify programmatic actions to end such discrimination.

The 41th meeting of the PCB is being chaired by Ghana, with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland acting as Vice-Chair and Japan as Rapporteur.

Discrimination in health-care settings is one of the major obstacles to ending the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030. Evidence shows that discrimination in health-care settings is widespread across the world, seriously reduces the quality of life of people who experience it and impedes the use of health services, thus preventing people exercising their right to health.

In order to accelerate action to end discrimination in health-care settings, the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board—during its 41st meeting, which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 12 to 14 December—reviewed the available evidence of the effects of discrimination in health-care settings on the efforts to reach the global HIV prevention and treatment targets and identified programmatic actions to end such discrimination.

Often driven by stigma, discrimination in health-care settings may be manifested when an individual or group is denied access to health-care services that are otherwise available to others, or when care, treatment and/or medical procedures are refused or delayed on a discriminatory basis.

Evidence provided during the meeting shows that discrimination in health-care settings excludes or deters people from seeking health services for fear of stigma, judgemental attitudes or lack of confidentiality. It acts as a barrier to reaching the 90–90–90 targets and has negative impacts along the continuum of care, which encompasses HIV prevention, testing, treatment and sustained viral load suppression.

Where people cannot or will not access health services, they are less likely to be tested for HIV at all, let alone in a timely manner to ensure that they benefit from the early initiation of treatment. Similarly, where people living with HIV do initiate treatment, discrimination can lead to them being lost to follow-up and less likely to adhere to treatment.

Furthermore, health workers are also subject to the same drivers of discrimination as others, including negative attitudes towards people living with HIV, key populations and women and girls. Health-care provider surveys in Thailand reveal that attitudes about HIV among health facility staff may prevent them from adequately caring for people living with or affected by HIV. The attitudes include notions that HIV is a punishment for immoral behaviour, that most people living with HIV do not care if they infect other people and that it can be appropriate to sterilize a woman living with HIV, even without her consent. In some cases, health workers explicitly state that they would prefer not to provide services to members of key populations.

Solving these challenges and eliminating discrimination in health-care settings requires the implementation and scale-up of focused, coordinated, time-bound, evidence-informed, multisectoral actions.

The participants at the meeting agreed upon a set of programmatic approaches to reduce discrimination in health care, including the following:

• Programmes and other measures to eliminate discrimination in health-care settings must be based on the evidence. Discrimination must therefore be monitored, measured and tracked. In particular, it is important to gauge both the experiences of service users and the attitudes and practices of service providers, as well as to monitor the existence and implementation of national-, local- and facility-level non-discrimination policies.
• As part of a comprehensive strategy to eliminate discrimination in health-care settings, countries should provide pre-service and in-service education to the health workforce. This allows health workers to develop human rights and gender equality competencies and strengthens the understanding of medical ethics and workers’ rights, roles and responsibilities in relation to discrimination in health-care settings.
• Countries should review and strengthen laws to prohibit discrimination in the provision and distribution of health services and provide access to remedies for individuals whose rights have been violated, as well as penalties for the perpetrators. Eliminating formal discrimination rooted in laws and policies is one part of the solution. However, states must also put in place measures that protect people living with HIV and members of key populations in and beyond health-care settings.

The participants agreed that addressing stigma and discrimination, including in health-care settings, is a fundamental requirement for achieving the Fast-Track Targets set for 2020 and the promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of leaving no one behind.

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GENEVA, 15 December 2017—The 41st UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board meeting concluded in Geneva, Switzerland, on 14 December. The Board took note of the report on progress in implementing the UNAIDS Joint Programme Action Plan and the Strategic Resource Mobilization Plan 2018–2021 and called for additional contributions towards fully funding UNAIDS’ core Budget, Results and Accountability Framework.

The Board recognized the significant progress achieved by UNAIDS over the past months as an example of United Nations reform in action. The Board members welcomed the strengthened partnership with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and expressed a shared sense of urgency to Fast-Track resource mobilization to effectively implement programmes.

The Executive Director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibé, presented his report to the Board in the opening session, in which he highlighted the significant progress that has been achieved in access to antiretroviral therapy and in stopping new HIV infections among children.

Mr Sidibé also highlighted the need to do more to reach the people being left behind, including young women and adolescent girls, and to address the blind spot in engaging men. He emphasized that stigma, discrimination and criminalization must be confronted head on, as central to achieving UNAIDS’ vision for health and the Sustainable Development Goals. “We will not realize the right to health for all if we do not confront and eliminate stigma and discrimination,” he said. “The Sustainable Development Goals demand that we tackle health and development differently. UNAIDS continues to be a leader on this front.”

The Board noted the reinvigorated commitment to HIV prevention and reaffirmed the need to redouble the commitment to it, including through ensuring a quarter of funding for HIV prevention.

During the final day of the meeting, which was dedicated to a thematic session on discrimination in health-care settings, members of the Board gave their commitment to continue working to end stigma and discrimination. The nongovernmental organization delegation called for a global compact to eliminate all forms of stigma and discrimination.

The members of the Board reflected on the growing HIV and related health and human rights challenges in prisons and other closed settings. They shared examples of action being taken in their respective countries, while acknowledging the need to do more.

Argentina, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana were recognized for their recent financial contributions to UNAIDS, and China, Denmark, Germany, Poland and Sweden were recognized for their increased financial support.

An address made by Ruth Dreifuss, former President of Switzerland and current Chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, recognized the important role that UNAIDS has played in advocating for evidence-informed, human rights-based responses to HIV, including in the context of drug use.

Representatives of United Nations Member States, international organizations, civil society and nongovernmental organizations attended the three-day meeting, held from 12 to 14 December, which was chaired by the Minister of Health of Ghana, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland serving as Vice-Chair and Japan as Rapporteur.

The UNAIDS Executive Director’s report to the Board and the Board’s decisions can be found at unaids.org.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

10 December 2017

Michel Sidibé
Executive Director of UNAIDS
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations

The advances in the response to HIV have been unprecedented. In South Africa in 2000, just 90 people had access to antiretroviral therapy. Today, South Africa has the largest treatment programme in the world, with 4.2 million people living with HIV in the country now on treatment. We have exceeded global targets and today around the world 20.9 million people have access to life-saving HIV medicines.

However, we cannot be complacent—AIDS is not over in any part of the world and the challenges ahead remain significant. Studies from 19 countries show that approximately one in five people living with HIV had been denied health care (including dental care, family planning services or sexual and reproductive health services). Data from eight countries show that 25% of people living with HIV avoided going to hospital because they feared stigma or discrimination related to their HIV status, and one in three women living with HIV had experienced at least one form of discrimination in health-care settings related to their sexual and reproductive health.

These challenges are underpinned by inequalities and discrimination, which are preventing the most vulnerable to the epidemic, including women, young people and key populations, from exercising their right to health. We have a moral and legal responsibility to act against discrimination and protect human rights. Only when human dignity and equality are preserved can we fully realize My Health, My Right. 

On Human Rights Day, I urge everyone to reflect on how the AIDS epidemic has transformed our understanding of the structural, legal and social determinants of health and on the power of people living with and affected by HIV, who came together to break the conspiracy of silence to demand the protection of human rights. The lessons from the past should reenergize us to face the challenges ahead.

The Sustainable Development Goals offer a transformative global agenda grounded in the commitment to leave no one behind and end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030. To realize this global goal, I call on everyone to stand up for human rights and to recommit to the respect, protection and fulfilment of rights for all.

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 10 December as Human Rights Day in 1950, to draw attention to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

During a visit to Ottawa, Canada, from 29 November to 1 December, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé discussed with government officials ways to strengthen collaboration with the Canadian Government and met with representatives of civil society.

Mr Sidibé visited the AIDS Committee of Ottawa to see first-hand how a frontline AIDS service organization is responding to the opioid crisis in Canada. At a round-table discussion with Canadian civil society organizations, the successes and challenges in the Canadian response to HIV were highlighted. During the discussion, Mr Sidibé stressed that a vibrant civil society was critical to scaling up responses towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

Mr Sidibé also met Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, and Diane Jacovella, Deputy Minister of International Development, who underlined the progress made in preventing new HIV infections and the important impact those efforts are having on women’s health, including the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women.

Mr Sidibé spoke with senior government officials during a town hall meeting on human rights-based approaches to health and how the response to HIV can be a catalyst for accelerating progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. He shared his vision and perspective on the opportunities towards ending AIDS and spoke about the recent reform of UNAIDS. The link between sexual and reproductive health and HIV was discussed, as was the need for greater efficiencies and reform in the global health architecture.

Mr Sidibé also met the Minister of Health, Ginette Petitpas Taylor, and the Minister of Indigenous Services, Jane Philpott, to discuss the HIV epidemic in Canada and to hear their perspectives on the current needs and challenges of the AIDS response in the country, especially among indigenous populations. It was highlighted that tuberculosis and hepatitis are major causes of death among indigenous people in Canada. They discussed how cooperation between UNAIDS and Canada could help in addressing the special needs of indigenous people.

The visit ended on World AIDS Day with the launch of a groundbreaking report on increasing male engagement in health services and with Mr Sidibé raising a flag on Parliament Hill with Ms Bibeau, Ms Petitpas Taylor and representatives of people living with HIV. 

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