A/HRC/19/37 HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. In line with this growing momentum, in March 2011, the General Assembly decided to convene a high-level meeting from 8 to 10 June 2011 to undertake a comprehensive review of progress achieved in previous declarations, including successes, best practices, lessons learned, obstacles and gaps, challenges and opportunities, and to make recommendations to guide and monitor the HIV/AIDS response beyond 2010. The General Assembly decided in its resolution 65/180 that this review should also include concrete strategies for action, as well as promote the continued commitment and engagement of leaders in a comprehensive global response to HIV/AIDS. During its sixty-fifth session in its resolution 65/277, the General Assembly adopted a new declaration entitled Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Intensifying our Efforts to Eliminate HIV/AIDS. This 2011 Political Declaration was adopted when important progress had been achieved at national, regional and international levels – namely, more than 25 per cent reduction in the rate of new infections in over 30 countries, significant reduction in vertical transmission, and expansion of access to treatment to over 6 million people resulting in the reduction of AIDS-related deaths by more than 20 per cent over a five year period. However, in recognition of the fact that the goals and targets in previous declarations adopted in 2001 and 2006 would expire at the end of 2010, and in the light of the urgent need to renew commitments to the fight against AIDS, an intensified response was considered necessary (see General Assembly resolution 65/180). It was also recognized that HIV continues to constitute a global emergency that poses formidable challenges to development, progress and stability and requires an exceptional and comprehensive global response. The meeting was held at a time when HIV was entering into its fourth decade, AIDS had claimed more than 30 million lives, 33 million people were living with HIV, almost 17 million children were orphaned due to AIDS, 7,000 new infections were occurring daily, and AIDS was the sixth leading cause of death globally.1 5. The new 2011 Political Declaration reaffirms the 2001 Declaration of Commitment and the 2006 Political Declaration and the urgent need to scale up the goal of universal access to comprehensive prevention programmes, treatment, care and support. It also commits to new targets and goals, some of which are time-bound, in order to end the epidemic with renewed political will. Like previous declarations, the 2011 Political Declaration reaffirms that the full realization of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all is an essential element in the global response to HIV. It recognizes that addressing stigma and discrimination is a critical element in the global response to HIV and also recognizes the need to strengthen national policies and legislation in that regard. It also contains a chapter on human rights that seeks to address important human rights-related concerns pertinent to the HIV response. That chapter, together with other references to human rights in the declaration, calls on Member States to tackle stigma and discrimination in its multiple forms and address the drivers of vulnerability and risk behaviours associated with HIV, as well as the human rights violations against people living with, presumed to be living with, and/or affected by HIV. B. Human rights challenges 6. Prior to the 2011 High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS, the Secretary-General was requested to submit an analytical report on progress achieved and challenges remaining in realizing the commitments set out in the Declaration of Commitment and the 2006 Political Declaration, which was entitled “Uniting for universal access: towards zero new HIV 1 4 See Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), UNAIDS Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic (2010) and World Health Organization (WHO) “The top 10 causes of death”, fact sheet No. 310 (2011).