A/HRC/32/25 health threat, and invited the Human Rights Council and ambassadors to ensure that human rights were at the centre of the discussions at the General Assembly. He pointed out that because the tools were available, there was a collective responsibility to end AIDS by 2030. Human rights were more central to the fight against AIDS today than ever before, as the history of success against the epidemic had been uneven. While much progress had been made, that has not been the case for everyone. He said that failure to protect human rights, particularly of those most vulnerable to and affected by the AIDS epidemic, was now more than ever making the difference between life and death. He stressed that unless we removed the legal and policy barriers that resulted in people being left behind, we would not be able to put an end to the AIDS epidemic. 11. He emphasized that the current priority was to address the fundamental factors that were preventing progress against AIDS, and that the challenge today was to make human rights work for people. He stressed that discrimination in health-care settings was unacceptable, and yet HIV-positive people continued to be denied health services and to be discriminated against. He also noted that, since we had the tools to end AIDS, the outcomes for persons living with HIV should not be determined by who they were or where they lived. Whereas geography was less important now than in the past in determining access to treatment, vulnerability to HIV and access to services were determined more than ever by gender, sexual orientation, or the fact of being a detainee, an injecting drug user or a sex worker. He noted that the current rates of AIDS among sex workers in some sub-Saharan African countries were unacceptably high. He also stressed that higher HIV vulnerability among women and girls or among gay men and transgender people was less about biology than about the social, legal and human rights challenges faced by these populations. 12. While citing the overall progress in the HIV/AIDS response, with some 16 million people on antiretroviral treatment today, Dr. Loures recalled that 35 million deaths had been caused by HIV/AIDS and lessons must be learned. In spite of important progress in the AIDS response, the paradox was that, while the science had advanced, the solution was yet to materialize. He said that lack of respect for and protection of human rights was the main determinant of the epidemic. He also noted that there was a looming treatment crisis associated with the ongoing inadequate delivery of treatment and inadequate access to treatment, due to costs and a lack of adequately equipped systems. He recalled the successes in bringing about a global shift in the HIV/AIDS response over the past 20 years, the greatest driver of which had been social movements. Civil society organizations, in particular those representing people living with HIV, had been at the forefront of the progress achieved in the AIDS response, from demanding the protection of their human rights to setting up programmes to improve access to justice and health services. B. Overview of the presentations by the panellists 13. The moderator, Mr. Comissário, spoke of the twentieth anniversary of the International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights and emphasized that the vision now was to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. He reiterated that the panel discussion was taking place in the context of preparations for the high-level meeting in New York in June 2016, and that the composition of the panel reflected efforts undertaken by civil society, experts, the United Nations entities concerned, Governments, and activists on the ground. 14. Ms. Oktariani described her experience of living with HIV, from her initial diagnosis to her current role as an advocate for the empowerment of her community and for the voiceless. She emphasized that efforts to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic could not be separated from fulfilment of the human rights of the people affected by it. Women, young people and children were those who were most often left behind due to failures to provide 5