The HIV/AIDS epidemic has become a global
crisis that demands global action.
In the past 20 years, more than 56 million people have been infected
with HIV and some 22 million have died of AIDS-related illnesses, 4.3 million
of them children.
Only an extraordinary worldwide response can reverse its spread. To
move this fight forward, the United Nations General Assembly in September
2000 decided to convene a Special Session on HIV/AIDS. The meeting will
be held in New York on 25-27 June 2001—almost 20 years to the day after
the first clinical evidence of AIDS was reported.
The Special Session on HIV/AIDS is a watershed event. Top-level national
delegations will review action plans that have proven most effective. They
will consider new steps and new partnerships. Interactive round-table discussions
will bring together government leaders, AIDS activists, nongovernmental
organizations and private sector partners.
The aims of the Special Session are necessarily ambitious. The Session
must lay the solid foundation for a global consensus on the essential elements
of a successful response.
More information:
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Special Session of the United
Nations General Assembly on HIV/AIDS (United Nations)
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UNAIDS The Joint United Nations
Programme on HIV/AIDS
Related news:
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United
Nations: Report about AIDS (23/2/2001)