A/HRC/32/25
contributions were not delivered due to lack of time, including those of Albania, Algeria,
Angola, the Bahamas, Belarus, Belgium, China, Ethiopia, France, Georgia, the Holy See,
Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian
Federation, South Africa, Swaziland, Thailand, Tunisia, the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela, and Viet Nam.
24.
Representatives of the following non-governmental organizations and
intergovernmental organizations contributed to the discussions: the Elizabeth Glaser
Pediatric AIDS Foundation (in a joint statement with Caritas Internationalis and World
Vision International), the Center for Reproductive Rights (in a joint statement with the
ATHENA Network, the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS and
Vivo Positivo), the International Harm Reduction Association, the International HIV/AIDS
Alliance (in a joint statement with the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and
Intersex Association, the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations,
the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, the Global Network of People Living with HIV,
the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the International AIDS Society, the
Grandmothers’ Advocacy Network and the Humanist Institute for Cooperation with
Developing Countries), the World Young Women’s Christian Association, and Action
Canada for Population and Development.
25.
The World Food Programme and the International Labour Organization also took
the floor. Due to a lack of time, contributions were also registered but not delivered from
the International Development Law Organization, the United Nations Office for Project
Services, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Health Organization and
the United Nations Population Fund.
26.
All speakers reaffirmed their commitment to ending HIV/AIDS, and there was a
broad consensus that human rights should be at the core of global, regional and national
strategies to end the epidemic. Several delegates emphasized that ending HIV/AIDS would
require international human rights obligations to be fulfilled, and access to health care,
treatment and medicines for all to be promoted. They stressed the importance of
international cooperation in that regard, with some pointing out that in order for no one to
be left behind, the international community needed to redouble its efforts, strengthening its
cooperation on universal access to medicines and antiretroviral treatment. Speakers
emphasized that the human right to health should be fulfilled for everyone, without
discrimination, and that in order to reach the many in need who still did not have affordable
access to antiretroviral drugs, States could make use of the flexibilities under the TradeRelated Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement.
27.
Several speakers underlined the importance of ending the discrimination, stigma and
violence associated with HIV/AIDS, and identified a need for tailored approaches targeting
those with heightened vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, including children and adolescents,
women and girls, sex workers, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, people who
injected drugs and prison inmates. Several speakers stressed the importance of eliminating
punitive laws against those most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, for example the laws that
criminalized, inter alia, drug users, same-sex relations, sex workers, and HIV nondisclosure, exposure or transmission. It was also noted that punitive approaches in relation
to drug use were impeding global efforts to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
28.
Speakers pointed out that in order to bring about an effective, human rights-based
response and end HIV/AIDS by 2030, a strengthened gender focus was needed. They
identified gender-based inequality, discrimination and violence as causal factors in the
continuing spread of HIV/AIDS, and stressed that it was necessary to end gender-based
discrimination, for example by promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women
and girls in society and ensuring access to sexual and reproductive health and rights. Some
speakers also noted the obligation of States to uphold children’s rights to health and life, by
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