2006 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS

60th UNGA
2 June 2006

Res­o­lu­tion A/RES/60/262

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Offi­cial record A/60/PV.87

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Analysis of precedential value

This doc­u­ment is the prod­uct of the UN High-Level Meet­ing on AIDS in June 2006; “the Dec­la­ra­tion was adopted unan­i­mously after the Assem­bly had heard from over 150 speak­ers today, includ­ing 11 Heads of State or Gov­ern­ment and numer­ous other high Gov­ern­ment offi­cials.” The Gen­eral Assem­bly is the pre­em­i­nent gov­ern­ing body of the UN sys­tem and con­sists of all 193 UN Mem­ber States.

Used as precedent

harm reduction

• “Reaf­firm that the pre­ven­tion of HIV infec­tion must be the main­stay of national, regional and inter­na­tional responses to the pan­demic, and there­fore com­mit our­selves to inten­si­fy­ing efforts to ensure that a wide range of pre­ven­tion pro­grammes that take account of local cir­cum­stances, ethics and cul­tural val­ues is avail­able in all coun­tries, par­tic­u­larly the most affected coun­tries, includ­ing infor­ma­tion, edu­ca­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion, in lan­guages most under­stood by com­mu­ni­ties and respect­ful of cul­tures, aimed at reduc­ing risk-tak­ing behav­iours and encour­ag­ing respon­si­ble sex­ual behav­iour, includ­ing absti­nence and fidelity; expanded access to essen­tial com­modi­ties, includ­ing male and female con­doms and ster­ile inject­ing equip­ment; harm-reduc­tion efforts related to drug use; expanded access to vol­un­tary and con­fi­den­tial coun­sell­ing and test­ing; safe blood sup­plies; and early and effec­tive treat­ment of sex­u­ally trans­mit­ted infec­tions.” (para­graph 22)

positive legal determinants

• “Com­mit our­selves to over­com­ing legal, reg­u­la­tory or other bar­ri­ers that block access to effec­tive HIV pre­ven­tion, treat­ment, care and sup­port, med­i­cines, com­modi­ties and ser­vices.” (para­graph 24)

• “Com­mit our­selves to inten­si­fy­ing efforts to enact, strengthen or enforce, as appro­pri­ate, leg­is­la­tion, reg­u­la­tions and other mea­sures to elim­i­nate all forms of dis­crim­i­na­tion against and to ensure the full enjoy­ment of all human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms by peo­ple liv­ing with HIV and mem­bers of vul­ner­a­ble groups, in par­tic­u­lar to ensure their access to, inter alia, edu­ca­tion, inher­i­tance, employ­ment, health care, social and health ser­vices, pre­ven­tion, sup­port and treat­ment, infor­ma­tion and legal pro­tec­tion, while respect­ing their pri­vacy and con­fi­den­tial­ity; and devel­op­ing strate­gies to com­bat stigma and social exclu­sion con­nected with the epi­demic.” (para­graph 29)

bodily autonomy and integrity, positive legal determinants

• “Pledge to pro­mote, at the inter­na­tional, regional, national and local lev­els, access to HIV/AIDS edu­ca­tion, infor­ma­tion, vol­un­tary coun­sell­ing and test­ing and related ser­vices, with full pro­tec­tion of con­fi­den­tial­ity and informed con­sent, and to pro­mote a social and legal envi­ron­ment that is sup­port­ive of and safe for vol­un­tary dis­clo­sure of HIV sta­tus.” (para­graph 25)

bodily automomy and integrity, comprehensive sexuality education, gender equality, reproductive rights, sexual rights

• “Pledge to elim­i­nate gen­der inequal­i­ties, gen­der-based abuse and vio­lence; increase the capac­ity of women and ado­les­cent girls to pro­tect them­selves from the risk of HIV infec­tion, prin­ci­pally through the pro­vi­sion of health care and ser­vices, includ­ing, inter alia, sex­ual and repro­duc­tive health, and the pro­vi­sion of full access to com­pre­hen­sive infor­ma­tion and edu­ca­tion; ensure that women can exer­cise their right to have con­trol over, and decide freely and respon­si­bly on, mat­ters related to their sex­u­al­ity in order to increase their abil­ity to pro­tect them­selves from HIV infec­tion, includ­ing their sex­ual and repro­duc­tive health, free of coer­cion, dis­crim­i­na­tion and vio­lence; and take all nec­es­sary mea­sures to cre­ate an enabling envi­ron­ment for the empow­er­ment of women and strengthen their eco­nomic inde­pen­dence; and in this con­text, reit­er­ate the impor­tance of the role of men and boys in achiev­ing gen­der equal­ity.” (para­graph 30)

human rights, positive legal determinants

• “Com­mit our­selves to inten­si­fy­ing efforts to enact, strengthen or enforce, as appro­pri­ate, leg­is­la­tion, reg­u­la­tions and other mea­sures to elim­i­nate all forms of dis­crim­i­na­tion against and to ensure the full enjoy­ment of all human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms by peo­ple liv­ing with HIV and mem­bers of vul­ner­a­ble groups, in par­tic­u­lar to ensure their access to, inter alia, edu­ca­tion, inher­i­tance, employ­ment, health care, social and health ser­vices, pre­ven­tion, sup­port and treat­ment, infor­ma­tion and legal pro­tec­tion, while respect­ing their pri­vacy and con­fi­den­tial­ity; and devel­op­ing strate­gies to com­bat stigma and social exclu­sion con­nected with the epi­demic.” (para­graph 31)

access to health products

• “Reaf­firm that the World Trade Orga­ni­za­tion’s Agree­ment on Trade-Related Aspects of Intel­lec­tual Prop­erty Rights does not and should not pre­vent mem­bers from tak­ing mea­sures now and in the future to pro­tect pub­lic health. Accord­ingly, while reit­er­at­ing our com­mit­ment to the TRIPS Agree­ment, reaf­firm that the Agree­ment can and should be inter­preted and imple­mented in a man­ner sup­port­ive of the right to pro­tect pub­lic health and, in par­tic­u­lar, to pro­mote access to med­i­cines for all includ­ing the pro­duc­tion of generic anti­retro­vi­ral drugs and other essen­tial drugs for AIDS-related infec­tions. In this con­nec­tion, we reaf­firm the right to use, to the full, the pro­vi­sions in the TRIPS Agree­ment, the Doha Dec­la­ra­tion on the TRIPS Agree­ment and Pub­lic Health and the World Trade Orga­ni­za­tion’s Gen­eral Coun­cil Deci­sion of 2003 and amend­ments to Arti­cle 31, which pro­vide flex­i­bil­i­ties for this pur­pose.” (para­graph 43)