UNAIDS Executive Director
Dr Peter Piot
Photo credit: IAS/AIDES AIDES, the French national AIDS association, and the International AIDS Society (IAS) have joined forces to denounce stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV through an awareness campaign titled “If I were HIV-positive”.
To be launched at the upcoming XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, the campaign will raise awareness around several key issues in the AIDS response, from HIV-related travel restrictions and access to antiretroviral treatment to AIDS in the workplace.
Participating in the campaign from UNAIDS are Executive Director Dr Peter Piot, Kate Thomson, Chief of Civil Society Partnerships, and UNAIDS Special Representative Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway. Other participants include the Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Dr Michel Kazatchkine, AIDES President Bruno Spire, and IAS Executive Director Craig McClure and IAS President elect Dr Julio Montaner. Several other prominent figures from civil society and Latin America are also participating.
UNAIDS Special Representative
Her Royal Highness Crown
Princess Mette-Marit of Norway
Photo credit: IAS/AIDES Delegates at the conference will be invited to have their photo taken at either the IAS’ and AIDES’ exhibition booth and have the opportunity to create their own campaign visual.
This initiative continues on from the high impact “Si j’étais seropositif” campaign which ran in France during the French presidential elections in 2007 and which featured current French President Nicolas Sarkozy and former presidential candidate Segolène Royal.
