UN Preps for World AIDS Day and High Level Review

By Contributor | November 30, 2010

World AIDS day 2010 is tomorrow, and among other AIDS-related events at the UN, a draft resolution is being negotiated this week by delegates of the General Assembly that will determine procedures for the upcoming 2010 High-Level Review on AIDS.  
 
The negotiations are being carried out with the memory of the 2008 High-Level Meeting still fresh in many delegate’s minds. During last week’s informal consultations on the draft resolution, there was significant resistance from nations who did not approve of many aspects of the 2008 meeting. 

It was clear that a number of delegations were wary of which NGOs would be participating the 2010 Meeting. They called for lists of participating representatives to be circulated before the meeting began. Delegates also criticized the proposed text over its increased inclusivity for NGO and civil society participation. The proposed text deleted the word “participation” (in reference to the interaction of NGO and civil society actors), using the term “active engagement” instead. 

The European delegations who proposed this language explained that the change in agreed language “recognizes that the results of the meeting will depend very much on the engagement of these actors,” and further encouraged the text to make NGO access as open as possible.  Ironically, a proposal to include in national delegations organizations that represent the family, in its role as caregiver for those living with HIV/AIDS, was quickly dismissed by many of the same voices who called for openness and increased NGO participation at the meeting.   

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