<html>
<font face="Arial Unicode MS, Helvetica">Queridas amigas,<br>
<br>
Les estamos reenviando un mensaje que nos llegó a través de Bene
Madunagu, Coordinadora General de DAWN, acerca del tema de la declaración
de la ONU en torno a VIH/SIDA. Agradecemos difundirla entre sus
organizaciones.<br>
<br>
un abrazo,<br>
<br>
Beatriz Simonetti<br>
<br>
***************<br>
NECESITAMOS TU ACCIÓN INMEDIATA PARA FORTALECER LA DECLARACIÓN DE LA
ONU<br>
<br>
Querid@s amig@s,<br>
<br>
Vari@s coleg@s se encuentran trabajando día y noche, literalmente, en
Nueva York para fortalecer el borrador de la declaración política que
será puesta a consideración de las delegaciones de los gobiernos en la
UNGASS en menos de dos semanas. El actual documento es bastante débil, y
están solicitando nuestro apoyo para que nuestros gobiernos presionen y
acuerden una declaración más fuerte. Los siguientes pasos son tomados de
las comunicaciones enviadas por Shannon Kowalski, Kieran Daly, Zonny
Woods y Prateek Suman.<br>
<br>
QUÉ PUEDEN HACER: Ver la carta que se adjunta más abajo y que fuera
enviada por varias organizaciones de la sociedad civil. Por favor USENLA
Y ADAPTEN esta carta para enviarla a LAS DELEGACIONES Y MISIONES DEL
GOBIERNO DE SUS PAÍSES, o escriban una carta similar. Esto se tiene que
hacer ya.<br>
<br>
Una vez que esté finalizada la Declaración de la Sociedad Civil, se las
reenviaremos. Sería realmente muy útil si pudieran enviarla por e-mail y
enviarla por fax a las capitales- por lo menos a ministerios de salud y
consejos nacionales sobre SIDA- tanto como a sus misiones en Nueva York.
También ayudaría las llamadas de seguimiento. Hagámosle saber que los
estamos observando, y queremos y precisamos que esto tenga buenos
resultados. HAY QUE ACTUAR YA, SI ESTÁ DENTRO DE SUS POSIBILIDADES.
<br>
<br>
</font>************<br>
La que sigue es un modelo de carta (en inglés) enviada a los embajadores
de las misiones permanentes de Thailandia y Barbados en Nueva York, con
copia a Jan Eliasson, Presidente de la Asamblea General de Naciones
Unidas, y al Dr Peter Piot, Director Ejecutivo de UNAIDS.<br>
*********************<br>
17 May 2006<br>
<br>
H.E. Khunying Laxanachantorn Laohaphan <br>
Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Thailand <br>
Permanent Mission of Thailand to the United Nations<br>
<br>
H.E. Mr Christopher Fitzherbert Hackett <br>
Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Barbados <br>
Permanent Mission of Barbados to the United Nations<br>
<br>
Dear Ambassadors<br>
<br>
We write to express our profound concern and alarm at the content and
direction of the political declaration being prepared for the high
level meeting of the General Assembly (31 May to 2 June).<br>
Accordingly, we are calling for urgent intervention to make a number of
key changes to the draft declaration to ensure that a bold, meaningful
and action-oriented declaration is put before the General Assembly.
<br>
<br>
Without this, progress gained in the global response will likely be set
back and a vital opportunity missed to avert many more millions of HIV
infections and AIDS related illnesses and deaths.<br>
<br>
As the Secretary-General says in his Report on Declaration of Commitment
on HIV/AIDS: 5 years later (A/60/736), the high level meeting is “a
critical opportunity for world leaders to chart a way forward so that the
goals and vision of the Declaration are achieved in their entirety and so
that an exceptional response is sustained into the future. This
leadership commitment is the key to ultimately putting an end to
AIDS.”<br>
<br>
We agree with the Secretary-General that the world is at a defining
moment in its response to the AIDS crisis and that “to generate the
exceptional response demanded by this most exceptional global crisis, all
partners in the global AIDS response must embrace new ways of doing
business and new ways of working together.”<br>
<br>
We are dismayed that a number of the Secretary-General’s important
findings about barriers to progress (in A/60/737) are not specifically
referred to in the text, but only alluded to, often vaguely. A short, but
clear assessment of the global response its major failings and areas of
progress - is an essential opening to the declaration text.<br>
<br>
As it stands, the draft declaration does not provide a bold statement of
leadership, nor does it propose a clear framework for future action, nor
does it adequately chart new ways of working together to sustain progress
toward the MDGs and 2005 World Summit goals - including the bold ambition
to get as close as possible to Universal Access by 2010.<br>
<br>
Instead, much of the current draft text is a selective recapitulation of
the 2001 UNGASS Declaration’s commitments, resulting in an unnecessarily
long and disorderly document. Once the 2001 Declaration is re-affirmed,
then logically there is no need to then go on and selectively repeat
paragraphs, statements and principles already made in the 2001
Declaration. In any case, many of these repetitions are not verbatim but
are instead often obscurely worded and open ended with the <br>
unintentional effect of weakening the 2001 Declaration’s
commitments.<br>
<br>
The approach being taken so far does seem rather at odds with the
objectives of the high level meeting called for by the General Assembly.
We note the General Assembly’s resolution (A/60/224) called for
consultations by UNAIDS and co-sponsors with Member States and other key
stakeholders to identify common obstacles to scaling up prevention,
<br>
treatment and care. It also called for recommendations for addressing
such obstacles, as well as accelerated and expanded action. The results
of this important consultation process are contained in the
Secretary-General’s Note “Scaling up prevention, treatment, care and
support (A/60/736)”, which also makes sound, practical recommendations
for actions and timelines. We are disappointed to find these
recommendations are not fully included in the text, nor even referenced.
<br>
We urge this be reconsidered.<br>
<br>
The inclusion of these recommendations and timelines would provide a
major step towards transforming the text into the kind of blueprint for
action which we believe is needed.<br>
We also believe that recommendations already forwarded to you by the
UNGASS Civil Society Coalition contain many practical measures which
would greatly enhance the declaration. As you know, this document is
endorsed by over 250 civil society organisations across the world.<br>
<br>
We note that a number of the text amendments proposed by Member States
are consistent with the Civil Society Coalition document and with the
goal of a forward looking, action oriented political declaration. We
welcome this. However, some of these new proposals lack strategies for
implementation and timelines for their completion. We urge further
efforts to refine them.<br>
As for the next steps, we believe that reworking the draft text into a
shorter, practical and action-oriented declaration is achievable
through utilizing existing wording, reworking sections and with additions
as needed. We would be pleased to assist with providing text to support
your work and that of Member States consistent with the partnership
approach to HIV/AIDS as envisaged by the 2001 UNGASS Declaration.<br>
<br>
As you may be aware, in 2001 the community sector was closely involved in
the development of the UNGASS Declaration and we were generally very
supportive of the text as it evolved. At the General Assembly, civil
society welcomed the Declaration and promoted it enthusiastically.<br>
<br>
As it stands, we do not see that many community based organisations and
organisations of people living with HIV/AIDS, and indeed wider civil
society, will be able to endorse this declaration or support its use at
national, regional and community levels. Such a position would be very
regrettable, but we simply could not support a weak declaration at this
critical juncture in the global epidemic.<br>
<br>
Indeed, without a change in direction, we fear that the high level
meeting could be little more than a hugely expensive exercise which
instead of fostering hope and action, will instead cause disappointment,
resentment and serious loss of momentum.<br>
While our comments are strongly worded, they are nonetheless meant to be
constructive. We have no doubt of the good intentions of all those
working on the text in New York and elsewhere. However good intentions
are not sufficient to turn the tide of the epidemic. Leadership, clear
directions and resolve are needed more than ever.<br>
<br>
We very much look forward to your consideration of the points made in
this letter and to your early response.<br>
<br>
Yours sincerely,<br>
<br>
Jo Watson, National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS
(Australia) <br>
Alessandra Nilo, Gestos- Soropositividade, Comunicação e Gênero <br>
Don Baxter ? ?Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) <br>
Kevin Moody, Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS <br>
Marcel Van Soest, World AIDS Campaign <br>
Masaki Inaba, AIDS Task Force, Africa Japan Forum, Japan <br>
Micheal O’Connor, Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development <br>
Omololu Falobi, African Civil Society Coalition on AIDS <br>
Prateek Suman, Youth Coalition <br>
Richard Burzynski, International Council of AIDS Service Organizations
<br>
Richard Elliott, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network <br>
Shannon Kowalski, Family Care International <br>
Sisonke Msimang, Africa Civil Society Coalition on AIDS <br>
Susan Chong, Asia Pacific Council of AIDS Service Organizations <br>
Zonibel Woods, International Women’s Health Coalition<br>
<br>
cc. H.E. Mr Jan Eliasson, President of the United Nations General <br>
Assembly <br>
Dr Peter Piot, Executive Director, UNAIDS<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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