General Assembly Session 62 meeting 104

The Acting President

I now give the floor to Her Excellency Ms. Siti Fadilah Supari, Minister of Health of Indonesia.

Ms. Supari (Indonesia)

Allow me to begin by expressing my profound appreciation for the opportunity to participate in this high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS. I am doing so on behalf of my President, who was keen to be here but, regretfully, could not because of a prior commitment.

The delegation of Indonesia would like to thank the Secretary-General for his report on the progress being made in response to HIV in different regions. Indonesia would like to emphasize at the outset its firm commitment to the implementation of the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the 2006 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS for the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals. In addressing this issue, we align ourselves with the views expressed by Antigua and Barbuda on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

Recognizing the grave danger HIV/AIDS represents, Indonesia has been putting safeguards in place to control and eventually stop its spread. However, for the present, even though we have a low aggregate HIV prevalence, the problem impacts many adults aged 15 to 49. Overall, as at 2006, it was estimated that 193,000 people in Indonesia were living with HIV.

Since the first case of AIDS was identified in 1987 in Indonesia, the number of infected individuals has increased annually. However, there has been an indication of accelerating growth in the last four to five years. Available data demonstrate that more than half of intravenous drug users are HIV-positive.

In response to this challenge, Indonesia has mounted a comprehensive attack on the epidemic with the primary goal of slowing and, ultimately, stopping new infections. That response includes moving towards universal access targets for prevention, care, support and treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS. Antiretroviral drugs are now available to more than 10,000 eligible people living with HIV/AIDS. Since 2004, we have been scaling up voluntary counselling and testing and increasing referral units for care and services with the aim of establishing units in every district by the end of 2010. There has been an increased emphasis on the education of our youth and the community at large about the disease so as to avoid the stigmatization of and discrimination against people affected by HIV/AIDS.

The strong commitment of the Government of Indonesia is stipulated by Presidential Regulation No. 75-2006, which assigns responsibilities to the National AIDS Commission.

The National HIV and AIDS Action Plan 2007-2010 provides the framework for action by the Government and its development partners through 2010. The National AIDS Commission has defined targets for the progressive achievement of universal access to HIV prevention, care, support and treatment services, as required by the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS of the special session of the General Assembly, which was reaffirmed by Indonesia in 2006.

Since then, Indonesia has made significant strides in reaching the global targets. In the coming years, the key building blocks for implementing our central-level commitment and vision are a national strategic plan for HIV, a ministerial decree ensuring free antiretroviral drugs for all people living with HIV/AIDS, and a policy on the co-infection issues between tuberculosis and HIV.

At this point, I would like to thank all our partners and donors for their strong technical and financial support.

Indonesia recognizes that the situation unfolding in the country demands more than reaction. We must position ourselves ahead of the curve of disaster to prevent it from happening. To achieve that, we look forward to the continued support of our international partners, including the United Nations system. However, the effectiveness of the United Nations system in the field would improve significantly if it were to ensure greater coherence and coordination among its agencies dealing with this challenge.

Finally, I hope and urge the forum to come up with clear recommendations and responsible commitments for the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The Acting President

I now give the floor to Her Excellency Ms. Mantombazana Tshabalala-Msimang, Minister of Health of South Africa.

Ms. Tshabalala-Msimang (South Africa)

I stand before this gathering to represent President Thabo Mbeki of the Republic of South Africa, who unfortunately could not attend this very important meeting because of prior commitments. He sends all of us good wishes for success in our deliberations. It is therefore a great honour and privilege for me to take this opportunity to address the General Assembly at the high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS.

South Africa is committed to working with the Southern African Development Community, the African Union, the Group of 77 and China and, indeed, the international community, to ensure that we are true to the commitments we made collectively as regards universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support for persons living with HIV/AIDS.

South Africa would also like to join other Member States in expressing their appreciation for the work done by the Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Dr. Peter Piot, in the compilation of the latest report (A/62/780) of the Secretary-General regarding the implementation of our commitments. We are especially grateful for the aptness of the report's recommendations, as they highlight the critical importance of sustainable responses to the challenges posed by HIV/AIDS. In that regard, South Africa welcomes the report.

The recommendations in the Secretary-General's report should be viewed in the context of reports from countries that indicate substantial progress balanced with continuing challenges. It is indeed a balanced scorecard. The sobering reality acknowledged in the report is that there is a need for effective prevention strategies. South Africa is encouraged by the discussions on harmonization. We hope that donor and recipient countries will commit themselves to working together to develop the necessary capacities to achieve the alignment of development assistance with national priorities, policies and plans.

Since the last high-level meeting, in 2006, South Africa has intensified its country's response to HIV/AIDS in many ways. The national strategic plan was reviewed and a new one was developed; the national AIDS council has been restructured; national AIDS budgets have been increased by more than 25 per cent in each of the two years since 2006; and the prevalence of HIV among those younger than 25 years of age has consistently decreased. We want to commend our young for applying the ABC messages, as well as for their understanding and participation in both the life skills and healthy lifestyles programmes. That has begun to translate into a decline in the national prevalence rate of HIV.

More than 480,000 people have been enrolled in the public sector antiretrovirals programme, 10 per cent of them being children. In February 2008, after critical consideration, we adopted dual therapy as part of the comprehensive package to prevent mother-to-child transmission. Seven of the country's nine provinces have started to implement that new policy; the other two provinces are expected to start soon. All of those facts are contained in the report that South Africa submitted to UNAIDS earlier this year.

Despite national and global achievements, we will continue to be concerned about the rate of new infections, as indicated in the Secretary-General's report. The situation as portrayed in the report is indeed untenable. It calls for an enhanced and sustainable response by all of us, especially the strengthening our prevention programmes.

South Africa has participated in regional and global meetings where difficult but correct questions have been posed about the parthenogenesis of HIV, the nature of the health systems that will ensure the implementation of sustainable and comprehensive programmes, the affordability of all medicines, including antiretrovirals, human resources challenges and appropriate diagnostic technologies. The current review of progress as regards combating HIV/AIDS should not only be informed by those international and regional debates within the health sector, it should also consider the current development challenges that affect the African continent and, indeed, the whole world.

In that context, we would like to refer to the acute problems of food shortages, the high cost of food, the energy crisis and the challenges of climate change that will put additional strain on budgets in the region and elsewhere. Those debates and those conditions should be considered when we talk about sustainable responses to HIV/AIDS. The bidirectional relationship between the institutional problems of poverty, underdevelopment, poor access to education and gender inequality require urgent attention if we are to meet and exceed the targets set in the Millennium Development Goals. Although 2015 is an important milestone, Africa needs long-term sustainable solutions that address the drivers of communicable and non-communicable diseases as well as trauma and violence, for better health outcomes.

The primary health-care approach in that regard, which celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this year, should be the cornerstone of our attempts to build a sustainable response to other communicable diseases -- including HIV/AIDS as well as non-communicable diseases, trauma and violence. The principles on which the approach is based are as relevant today as they were in 1978, when the Alma-Ata Declaration was adopted.

South Africa continues to honour its commitments to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. We acknowledge with gratitude and appreciation the assistance we continue to enjoy from cooperating partners in fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS in our country and mitigating the impact of AIDS.

We challenge the General Assembly to carefully consider the implications of knowledge gaps in basic science and their consequences for HIV vaccine and microbicide development. My delegation wishes to urge the international community to put more resources into basic science research. We also propose that more resources should be dedicated to research into affordable alternatives, such as complementary and traditional medicines and nutrition.

We are particularly concerned about inadequate drug surveillance and pharmacovigilance capacity, especially in the African region. We call upon our development partners to assist us in that regard.

While the issue of the empowerment of women has been raised in several statements and interventions, we believe that concrete recommendations together with monitoring mechanisms are needed to ensure visible action with respect to the empowerment of women and the survival of children. Similarly, children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS and other social and economic conditions appear only to be discussed in the context of orphans. We need a far more coherent dialogue, one that builds families and communities and gives hope to our youth.

In conclusion, South Africa pledges to continue to work with the international community to consider these challenges as we look for sustainable responses and solutions.

South Africa will continue to implement its national strategic plan but also to lead and create the necessary space for debates and action on those challenges that I have just outlined and other difficult questions in our continuing quest for a better life for all.

The Acting President

I now give the floor to Her Excellency Ms. Ana Jorge, Minister of Health of Portugal.

Ms. Jorge (Portugal)

It is a pleasure to be here in New York to participate in this important meeting on HIV/AIDS. The United Nations has a key role to play in the global fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic, bringing together all the relevant actors, including Governments and civil society.

Portugal fully aligns itself with the statement to be delivered by Slovenia on behalf of the European Union.

We recognize and express our appreciation to those who have led the effort to raise awareness of HIV infection and those who deal with the health and social challenges of this epidemic. In this context, the key role played by people living with HIV/AIDS and civil society must be noted.

Portugal reaffirms its full support to the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, as well as to the Dublin and the Bremen Declarations. We commit ourselves to achieving their goals and targets.

I would like to thank the Secretary-General for his report (A/62/780) on the progress made in the implementation to date. As the report underlines, we are still some way from reaching the goals we all have pledged to achieve. Progress in containing the epidemic is uneven, and its expansion often grows faster than the capacity of national health services.

It is in that context that Portugal strongly reaffirms the need to focus on prevention. It is important that the following critical areas are given more attention: prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV; young people's knowledge of HIV infection; prevention for populations most at risk; and the promotion of early diagnosis and positive prevention. Those prevention measures should be accompanied by efforts to achieve a better quality of life and improve access to comprehensive care for people living with HIV/AIDS, as well as to guarantee universal access to combined antiretroviral therapy.

Decision makers need to clearly know the magnitude of the epidemic and to monitor the impact of global, regional, national and local actions. Reliable public health data are the essential foundation for an effective response to HIV/AIDS. That demands full commitment to standard procedures for data gathering and information sharing to enable evidence-based public health policies.

Portugal has made significant progress in the fight against the infection, as a result of the priority given to AIDS in our national health plan. The policies in place to ensure universal access to HIV-related services are important elements of this plan.

Target areas and programmes of our national health strategy include sexual health and education in schools; promotion of corporate responsibility, and fighting stigma and discrimination in the workplace; needle and syringe exchange programmes, recently extended to prisons, which have resulted in a clear decrease of HIV infection among drug users; and migrant health and the health rights of undocumented people.

During its presidency of the European Union, Portugal organized the first meeting of national AIDS coordinators of the twenty-seven EU member States and neighbouring countries. That meeting, which aimed at translating principles into action, called for: convergence in policies and strategies for prevention, control and treatment; sharing of information on best practices; and development of compatible monitoring methodologies.

Over the next two years, Portugal will have the presidency of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries, a group of eight countries with 230 million people, spanning four continents. During that time, we are committed to do our best, through multilateral and bilateral cooperation, to help that group move faster towards achieving universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

In closing, let me emphasize that we need effective and sustainable responses to HIV and scaled-up prevention efforts that address HIV-TB co-infection, gender inequities and sexual practices. I believe that the first HIV-TB Global Leaders' Forum and this High-level Meeting are contributing decisively to a better coordination of our efforts towards those aims and are coming as close as possible to the goals of the United Nations commitments.

The Acting President

Before I give the floor to the next speaker, let me draw attention to the fact that there are 130 names inscribed on the list of speakers. In order to accommodate them all at the high-level meeting, I strongly appeal to speakers to limit their statements to five minutes.

I now give the floor to His Excellency, Mr. Humaid Mohammed Obaid Al Qutami, Minister of Health of the United Arab Emirates.

Mr. Al Qutami (United Arab Emirates)

At the outset, on behalf of the delegation of the United Arab Emirates, I take pleasure in expressing our appreciation to the President for presiding over this important meeting. I also wish to express our gratitude to the Secretary-General and the agencies of the United Nations for their valuable efforts in addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic throughout the world.

We are currently facing many global health challenges that are of great concern to the international community as they pose a threat to the world's health security. However, the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to be the single greatest challenge to international efforts and the one that most seriously threatens international health security, thereby demonstrating that the efforts of the international community have not yet achieved their objectives. A cursory look at the reports of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) reveals that the number of people infected with the virus through December 2007 was estimated at 33.2 million, while the number of deaths from the disease was put at 2.1 million. In addition, there were an estimated 2.5 million new cases in 2007. Those figures require that we redouble our efforts, especially given that half the time specified for the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has elapsed, and that the Goals emphasize the importance of implementing the HIV/AIDS commitment by 2010.

The United Arab Emirates is committed to the implementation of the 2001 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS. We are deeply concerned about the speed with which the disease is spreading throughout the world -- especially in developing countries, where it has taken the lives of millions of children, mothers and young people, resulting in the deterioration of economic and human conditions in those countries. In that regard, the United Arab Emirates would like to emphasize the importance of redoubling international and regional efforts to provide sufficient resources to enable those countries to obtain treatment drugs, implement their national strategies to combat the disease, address the effects of the epidemic and put in place prevention and support measures, especially measures focused on awareness and changes in behaviours that contribute to the transmission and spread of the disease.

Although HIV/AIDS does not pose a national health problem in the United Arab Emirates, in line with our wise leaders' belief in the importance of solidarity in international efforts to address this global problem, we stand united with all the countries of the world in combating the epidemic. In 1985, the United Arab Emirates adopted an effective national strategy to combat HIV/AIDS. It includes the provision of moral, financial, social and medical support for those infected with the disease and their families, so as to guarantee that patients receive medical treatment and to prevent complications brought about by the disease. That model has resulted in a low level of infection, as has been reflected in reports by the World Health Organization.

Our national programme includes several preventive measures, including reliance on local blood donors and using the latest technologies to screen donated blood, tissue and human organs. As a result, no cases of blood-borne transmission have been recorded in any blood centre in the country since the implementation of the programme. Moreover, a programme has been developed to screen those at highest risk of infection. There is also mandatory AIDS testing for couples planning to marry, as well as an active screening programme to detect the epidemic.

The United Arab Emirates is continuing to develop its national AIDS-prevention programme, as well as relevant laws and health regulations. We are also continuing to update protocols for multiple-drug treatment and for the protection of patients and their families and of society, in accordance with guidance provided by United Nations system organizations and other agencies dealing with human rights and providing support for the dignity and rights of patients in civil society.

In conclusion, I would like to wish this meeting full success in mobilizing the international will to strengthen the national efforts of States and of the United Nations in their endeavour to combat the epidemic and to find definitive solutions to preventing its spread throughout the world.

The Acting President

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