“The final version 5th UN Declaration on AIDS is a disappointing step in the fight against this killing disease and very far from what was desperately needed today. While AIDS remains the leading cause of death among adolescent and young African women, Member States have shown the disregard for the lives of so many people by blocking and watering down key parts of the declaration on several vital issues,” says Dr. Nomkhosi Mavuso, MSF Medical Representative, South Africa.
“The declaration waters down critical texts addressing Intellectual property (IP), blocking facilitated access to lifesaving medicine and it doesn’t recognize the rights and the urgent needs of some the most vulnerable and marginalized categories of people affected by AIDS. It also fails to value enough the critical work of communities and civil society organisations in the response. Even more problematically, the declaration fails to address why people continue to die from advanced HIV and the leading causes of death: TB but also severe bacterial and fungal infections.
The target of reducing HIV deaths below 250,000 by 2025 will simply not be met without interventions to prevent, diagnose and treat advanced HIV and addressing delayed start and interruption of care and treatment failure. Member States seem to have forgotten that the previous UNAIDS target of less than 500,000 HIV-related deaths by 2020 has not been achieved and their new commitments are simply very far from the level of the urgency and the mobilization of resources that this issue would require. Too many people will continue to die from AIDS if these issues are not drastically and urgently addressed”.
"Every day, we witness the failure of global solidarity"
Responding to COVID-19: Global Accountability Report 5 - May to September 2021
