Around the world, HIV/AIDs is shattering millions of children and young peoples' opportunities for healthy adult lives. Nevertheless, it is young people who offer the greatest hope for changing the course of the epidemic. In June 2001, the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDs adopted the 'Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS'--a comprehensive global workplan to beat HIV/AIDS, which focuses on the needs and rights of young people and children. This report examines the Declaration and its intention with regard to preventing mother-to-child transmission, providing care for children affected by AIDS, and protecting young people against the epidemic, as well as the time frames for the achievement of these critical goals.

When and where misinformation, taboos, prejudice and fear regarding HIV/AIDS predominate, fundamental human rights are repeatedly abused and violated. Young people are often those most vulnerable and exposed. This kit shows that many young people are demonstrating their commitment to take up the challenge and reverse this situation successfully. It is intended to provide young people with information, motivation and inspiration to undertake the creative, daring and crucial action needed to make respect for human rights in the context of HIV/AIDS become a reality for all.

In Thailand, too many girls find themselves at an early age in the sex industry, usually for lack of other options for earning a living. Young girls are desirable because they are thought to be “safe” and uninfected with HIV, but the risk of infection to them, and thence to their clients, is very high. This case study describes some responses to that problem, focusing on changing the attitudes of girls and their parents in regard to prostitution, and on providing a means for girls to avoid becoming sex workers through improved education and career opportunities.

HIV voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) is the gateway to both prevention and care, playing an important role in helping people to change their sexual behaviour and thus reduce HIV transmission. VCT services are being more widely promoted and developed and many countries are gradually instituting VCT as part of their primary healthcare package. The aim of this booklet is to describe the experiences of, and challenges faced by, five programmes in sub-Saharan Africa, which developed effective practices and implemented successful approaches to VCT in relation to four key thematic areas: prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT); tuberculosis (TB); young people; and general population groups. The programmes operate in low-resource settings and many of the experiences and lessons learnt may be transferable beyond country and culture, and strengthened through community mobilization and public policy measures. This booklet highlights the need for VCT not to be seen as a uniform intervention but as a flexible service that can be adapted to the needs of the population it serves.

This report contains important new data about why young people are key to defeating the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, including results from more than 60 new national surveys. It reaffirms that we must accord top priority to making investments in the well-being of young people and to engaging them in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

“Young people are the key in the fight against AIDS. By giving them the support they need, we can empower them to protect themselves against the virus. By giving them honest and straightforward information, we can break the circle of silence across all society. By creating effective campaigns for education and prevention, we can turn young people’s enthusiasm, drive and dreams for the future into powerful tools for tackling the epidemic.” - Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General

The present guide complements the indicators included in National AIDS programmes: a guide to monitoring and evaluation, by refining the indicators that have already been defined and proposing new ones that are in relatively early phases of development and use. These new indicators are included so as to ensure that policies and programmes benefit from the lessons learnt during the past decade and to provide experience of their measurement and use.

Young people are leading the prevention revolution by taking definitive action to protect themselves from HIV. A change is happening among young people across the world, especially in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Waiting longer to become sexually active, young people have fewer multiple partners and there’s an increased use of condoms among those with multiple partners. And HIV prevalence among young people is dropping in many key countries.

This report shows that these global commitments will be achieved only if the unique needs of young women and men are acknowledged, and their human rights fulfilled, respected, and protected. In order to reduce new HIV infections among young people, achieve the broader equity goals set out in the MDGs, and begin to reverse the overall HIV epidemic, HIV prevention and treatment efforts must be tailored to the specific needs of young people.

This document provides a set of recommendations for strategic actions that the UNAIDS Secretariat should undertake to collaborate effectively with a new generation of young leaders to ensure that the ambitious goals set by world leaders for the AIDS response are reached by 2015. The recommendations were compiled by an independent, youth-led Drafting Committee, in dialogue with the UNAIDS Secretariat, on behalf of more than 5000 young people who took part in CrowdOutAIDS. This document represents the first crowdsourced strategy in the history of the UN.