Civil society advocates at the UN High Level Meeting on AIDS in New York say that overnight negotiation may have moved the political declaration towards text that is more supportive of universal access to prevention, treatment and care, and which acknowledges the existence of `vulnerable groups`.
“A substantially stronger draft Political Declaration has been produced and assuming it survives the night I suspect it will offer some hope for finishing the week with a statement that is acceptable to the majority of civil society,” said a spokesperson for the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.
In particular the declaration contains language calling for legislation to protect vulnerable groups from discrimination, and it pledges to eliminate gender inequalities, gender-based abuse and violence, and to increase the capacities of women and adolescent girls to protect themselves from the risk of HIV infection.
The latest declaration draft also includes an explicit statement of the amount of money that will be needed - $20-23 billion per annum by 2010 – to fight AIDS effectively.
However, there will be no mention of specific targets for the numbers who have have access to treatment by 2010, one of civil society's strongest demands.