2011 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS

65th UNGA
10 June 2011

Res­o­lu­tion A/65/PV.95
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Offi­cial record A/65/PV.95
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Analysis of precedential value

This dec­la­ra­tion is the prod­uct of the UN High-Level Meet­ing on HIV/AIDS in June 2011, which included pre­sen­ta­tions from rep­re­sen­ta­tives of over 160 national, inter­gov­ern­men­tal and civil soci­ety organ­i­sa­tions and insti­tu­tions, as well as the pri­vate sec­tor. It was adopted by the UN Gen­eral Assem­bly with­out a gen­eral vote that same month. The Gen­eral Assem­bly is the pre­em­i­nent gov­ern­ing body of the UN sys­tem and con­sists of all 193 UN Mem­ber States.

Used as precedent

gender norms and stereotypes, intersectionality

Remain deeply con­cerned that, glob­ally, women and girls are still the most affected by the epi­demic and that they bear a dis­pro­por­tion­ate share of the care­giv­ing bur­den, and that the abil­ity of women and girls to pro­tect them­selves­from HIV con­tin­ues to be com­pro­mised by phys­i­o­log­i­cal fac­tors, gen­der inequal­i­ties, includ­ing unequal legal, eco­nomic and social sta­tus, insuf­fi­cient access to health care and ser­vices, includ­ing for sex­ual and repro­duc­tive health, and all forms of dis­crim­i­na­tion and vio­lence, includ­ing sex­ual vio­lence and exploita­tion.

key and vulnerable populations

Wel­come the adop­tion of the Con­ven­tion on the Rights of Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties, and rec­og­nize the need to take into account the rights of per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties as set forth in that Con­ven­tion, in par­tic­u­lar with regard to health, edu­ca­tion, acces­si­bil­ity and infor­ma­tion, in the for­mu­la­tion of our global response to HIV and AIDS.Note with con­cern that pre­ven­tion, treat­ment, care and sup­port pro­grammes have not been ade­quately tar­geted or made acces­si­ble to per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties.Com­mit to address, accord­ing to national leg­is­la­tion, the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties to HIV expe­ri­enced by migrant and mobile pop­u­la­tions and sup­port their access to HIV pre­ven­tion, treat­ment, care and sup­port.

human rights

Reaf­firm the com­mit­ment to ful­fil oblig­a­tions to pro­mote uni­ver­sal respect for and the obser­vance and pro­tec­tion of all human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms for all in accor­dance with the Char­ter, the Uni­ver­sal Dec­la­ra­tion of Human Rights and other instru­ments relat­ing to human rights and inter­na­tional law; and empha­size the impor­tance of cul­tural, eth­i­cal and reli­gious val­ues, the vital role of the fam­ily and the com­mu­nity and, in par­tic­u­lar, of peo­ple liv­ing with and affected by HIV, includ­ing their fam­i­lies, and the need to take into account the par­tic­u­lar­i­ties of each coun­try in sus­tain­ing national HIV and AIDS responses, reach­ing all peo­ple liv­ing with HIV, deliv­er­ing HIV pre­ven­tion, treat­ment, care and sup­port and strength­en­ing health sys­tems, in par­tic­u­lar pri­mary health care.Com­mit to inten­sify national efforts to cre­ate enabling legal, social and pol­icy frame­works in each national con­text in order to elim­i­nate stigma, dis­crim­i­na­tion and vio­lence related to HIV and pro­mote access to HIV pre­ven­tion, treat­ment, care and sup­port and non-dis­crim­i­na­tory access to edu­ca­tion, health care, employ­ment and social ser­vices, pro­vide legal pro­tec­tions for peo­ple affected by HIV, includ­ing inher­i­tance rights and respect for pri­vacy and con­fi­den­tial­ity, and pro­mote and pro­tect all human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms, with par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to all peo­ple vul­ner­a­ble to and affected by HIV.

stigma and discrimination

Reaf­firm that the full real­iza­tion of all human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms for all is an essen­tial ele­ment in the global response to the HIV epi­demic, includ­ing in the areas of pre­ven­tion, treat­ment, care and sup­port, rec­og­nize that address­ing stigma and dis­crim­i­na­tion against peo­ple liv­ing with, pre­sumed to be liv­ing with or affected by HIV, includ­ing their fam­i­lies, is also a crit­i­cal ele­ment in com­bat­ing the global HIV epi­demic, and rec­og­nize also the need, as appro­pri­ate, to strengthen national poli­cies and leg­is­la­tion to address such stigma and dis­crim­i­na­tion.Rec­og­nize that close coop­er­a­tion with peo­ple liv­ing with HIV and pop­u­la­tions at higher risk of HIV infec­tion will facil­i­tate the achieve­ment of a more effec­tive HIV and AIDS response, and empha­size that peo­ple liv­ing with and affected by HIV, includ­ing their fam­i­lies, should enjoy equal par­tic­i­pa­tion in social, eco­nomic and cul­tural activ­i­ties, with­out prej­u­dice and dis­crim­i­na­tion, and that they should have equal access to health care and com­mu­nity sup­port as all mem­bers of the com­mu­nity.

reproductive rights

Rec­og­nize that access to sex­ual and repro­duc­tive health has been and con­tin­ues to be essen­tial for HIV and AIDS responses and that Gov­ern­ments have the respon­si­bil­ity to pro­vide for pub­lic health, with spe­cial atten­tion to fam­i­lies, women and chil­dren.Facil­i­tat­ing access to sex­ual and repro­duc­tive health-care ser­vices.

key population and community leadership

Rec­og­nize the role that com­mu­nity orga­ni­za­tions play, includ­ing those run by peo­ple liv­ing with HIV, in sus­tain­ing national and local HIV and AIDS responses, reach­ing all peo­ple liv­ing with HIV, deliv­er­ing pre­ven­tion, treat­ment, care and sup­port ser­vices and strength­en­ing health sys­tems, in par­tic­u­lar the pri­mary health­care approach.Com­mit to con­tinue engag­ing peo­ple liv­ing with and affected by HIV in deci­sion­mak­ing and plan­ning, imple­ment­ing and eval­u­at­ing the response, and to part­ner with local lead­ers and civil soci­ety, includ­ing com­mu­nity-based orga­ni­za­tions, to develop and scale up com­mu­nity-led HIV ser­vices and to address stigma and dis­crim­i­na­tion.

comprehensive sexuality education, gender equality

Pledge to elim­i­nate gen­der inequal­i­ties and 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, as well as 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, includ­ing their sex­ual and repro­duc­tive health, free of coer­cion, dis­crim­i­na­tion and vio­lence, in order to increase their abil­ity to pro­tect them­selves from HIV infec­tion, and take all nec­es­sary mea­sures to cre­ate an enabling envi­ron­ment for the empow­er­ment of women and to strengthen their eco­nomic inde­pen­dence, and, in this con­text, reit­er­ate the impor­tance of the role of men and boys in achiev­ing gen­der equal­ity.

harm reduction

Giv­ing con­sid­er­a­tion, as appro­pri­ate, to imple­ment­ing and expand­ing risk- and harm-reduc­tion pro­grammes, tak­ing into account the WHO, UNODC, UNAIDS Tech­ni­cal Guide for Coun­tries to Set Tar­gets for Uni­ver­sal Access to HIV Pre­ven­tion, Treat­ment and Care for Inject­ing Drug Users, 7 in accor­dance with national leg­is­la­tion.

negative legal determinants

Com­mit to review, as appro­pri­ate, laws and poli­cies that adversely affect the suc­cess­ful, effec­tive and equi­table deliv­ery of HIV pre­ven­tion, treat­ment, care and sup­port pro­grammes to peo­ple liv­ing with and affected by HIV and to con­sider their review in accor­dance with rel­e­vant national review frame­works and time frames.

positive legal determinants, stigma and discrimination

Com­mit to pro­mot­ing laws and poli­cies that ensure the full real­iza­tion of all human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms for young peo­ple, par­tic­u­larly those liv­ing with HIV and those at higher risk of HIV infec­tion, so as to elim­i­nate the stigma and dis­crim­i­na­tion they face.