By Billie-Jean Nieuwenhuys, Policy Officer, International AIDS Society

The universal access pledge to provide HIV prevention, treatment, care and support to all those in need by 2010 was a key focus of the XVIII International AIDS Conference. There was wide scale agreement that although the commitment will not be achieved this year, the struggle to achieve universal access needs to continue. The conference provided the opportunity to take stock of the universal access pledge and devise strategies for taking the pledge forwards beyond 2010. As Dr. Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS points out, “it is not a time to scale down, but to scale up.”

The key debates on reaching universal access by 2015 appear to centre around two core issues: raising the overall resource demand from international donors as well as national governments and making more effective and efficient use of the resources available now. The Deputy President of South Africa Kgalema Motlanthe stated that “It is our duty and responsibility to use the platforms of the G8 and the G20 to advocate for more resources and that even as the world experiences an economic downturn, investments in HIV must not be the soft target for global austerity measures." More...

By Bill Gates, Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation [Cross-posted from the Gates Foundation Blog]

I’m honored to speak at the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna today. This conference marks an important turning point in the fight against AIDS.

There are good reasons to be hopeful – we have seen amazing progress. The number of people getting treatment for AIDS has increased twelve-fold since 2003. The people at this conference and major partners such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and PEPFAR have helped make this possible.

Credit: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

At the same time, we have to recognize that these are tough times for those of us who are passionate about fighting HIV. Economic turbulence has driven up government deficits, and some countries have responded by reducing their investments in global health. These are the challenges we all face, but they don’t have to define our time. More...

By Alois Stöger, Minister of Health, Austria

In Austria, the first HIV/AIDS cases were diagnosed in 1983.

In 1983 only very restricted information was available on:

• the real nature of HIV/AIDS
• perspectives considering the development of vaccines
• perspectives considering the development of treatment
• no hope for treatment HIV/AIDS was an untreatable, incurable, deadly disease.

The only possible response was:

• information and consolidation of the available knowledge concerning:
  *possible modes of transmission
  *public health action with a potential to decrease risk
  *activities to decrease individual risk with a focus on behavioural change
  *measures to avoid discrimination of people living with HIV/AIDS
• public health measures to enable vulnerable groups to protect themselves
• public health measures to cut nosocomial infections, transmission by blood transfusions and blood products. More...

By Kieran Daly, Executive Director, International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO), an AIDS 2010 Organizing Partner

The XVIII International AIDS Conference takes place at a critical time. 2010. The target year by which the world was to have achieved universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

As a long-standing member of the Conference Coordinating Committee, the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO) believes that AIDS 2010 is a key opportunity to hold world leaders accountable and push them to make a difference in turning the tide on the AIDS pandemic.

We know that investing in AIDS responses is a good example of how the world can effectively respond to health challenges and have real impact. An example of this is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which alone has financed programmes that will save an estimated five million – including putting 2.5 million people on HIV treatment by 2009. More...

By Beri Hull, Global Advocacy Officer for the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW Global) and Maeve McKean, ICW’s Women’s Law and Public Policy Legal Fellow. ICW Global is an AIDS 2010 Organizing Partner.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic has taken a catastrophic toll on women and girls. Women and girls make up 50 percent of infections globally and constitute nearly 60 percent of those living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa. The International Community of Women Living with HIV and AIDS Global (ICW) is a membership advocacy network of and for HIV-positive women. We advocate for women’s rights and share the concerns of all HIV-positive women, including young women, girls, sex workers, injection drug users, prisoners, migrants and transgender women. 

The Thailand Positive Partnership Program (PPP) is a micro credit program benefiting people living with HIV/AIDS in rural Thailand. UNAIDS/O. O'Hanlon

While we at ICW Global are encouraged by the theme Rights Here, Right Now, we must work over the next days and years to make this theme a reality. This conference is a time to speak openly and to take action for the rights of all HIV-positive women. More...

By Kevin Moody, International Coordinator and CEO, Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+), an AIDS 2010 Organizing Partner

Rights Here, Right Now: a fitting theme for this year’s conference. For me, it encompasses high aspirations for the respect and protection of the rights of people living with HIV (PLHIV), coupled with the demand for action so that these aspirations can become a reality.

HIV is not just a medical problem. In fact, the medical aspects of HIV are relatively straight-forward. The real epidemic is the penalization around HIV and the stigma and discrimination it promotes. As a community of PLHIV, no matter the age, sex, race, sexuality, etc., the one antidote that can begin to address this epidemic is found in the protection of our human dignity.

At GNP+, our work is based on shared principles that include the understanding that HIV is a human rights issue and that chronic care principles that place the person at the centre should apply to responses to the epidemic. These aspirations may seem out of reach, especially to those with other basic needs, such as access to the basic needs of food and water and access to treatment, prevention and care services. More...

By Vladimir Zhovtyak, President, ECUO, an AIDS 2010 Organizing Partner.

The East Europe and Central Asia Union of PLWH (ECUO) brings together PLHIV communities and organizations from 14 countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) through our joint Russian language and one common goal. ECUO’s goal through 2025 is to ensure access to comprehensive treatment, care and support for adults and children living with HIV in EECA countries through effective partnership and actions of the PLHIV community. ECUO is the only organization in the world representing PLHIV from EECA.

We believe that the biggest forum on HIV/AIDS, which will be held in Vienna, close to our EECA region, will attract the attention of political leaders and donors to the specifics of HIV in our region, where the rate of new HIV infections is the highest in the world. More...

By Philipp Dirnberger, General Manager, Aids Hilfe Wien, an AIDS 2010 Organizing Partner

Aids Hilfe Wien is looking forward to AIDS 2010. As a result of this forthcoming event, the media interest in HIV/AIDS in Vienna has been tremendous for the last few weeks and the issue is more present in the media. This is of major importance  because information and education are crucial prerequisites in the fight against HIV and AIDS. People who understand how HIV is transmitted are able to protect their partners and themselves from infection and know that there is no reason for discriminating against people living with HIV!

Due to the enormous media attention, which will definitely increase in July, Aids Hilfe Wien hopes for long-lasting changes in HIV awareness that will persist well beyond the conference week.

Aids Hilfe Wien

During the conference week, Vienna will be entirely committed to the Red Ribbon, the emblem of solidarity to people living with HIV. Under the conference theme, Rights Here, Right Now, the main topic will be international human rights and the need to enforce those rights as an essential element in the war against HIV. More...

By Vidyaratha Kissoon, CVC Media Volunteer, AIDS 2010. CVC is an AIDS 2010 Organizing Partner.

The Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC) endorses the theme Rights Here, Right Now for AIDS 2010.

CVC is a coalition of community leaders and non-governmental agencies providing services directly to and on behalf of Caribbean populations who are especially vulnerable to HIV infection or often forgotten in access to treatment and healthcare programmes. These groups include:

• men who have sex with men
• sex workers
• people who use drugs
• orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV
• migrant populations
• ex-prisoners
• youth in especially difficult circumstances.

Youth in Toco, Trinidad. Credit: UNAIDS/B. Press.

The membership is drawn from the Caribbean and includes people and organizations who work in Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Curaçao, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, the French Caribbean, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia,  St. Vincent, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. More...

By Sophie Dilmitis, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and HIV Coordinator, World YWCA, an AIDS 2010 Organizing Partner

For the last four years, the World YWCA, which represents a constituency of 25 million women and girls, has served on the AIDS 2008 and 2010 Conference Coordinating Committee (CCC). As our time on the CCC comes to an end, we share our expectations for the conference and what remains to be done to continue to put women and girls on the agenda of the International AIDS Conference (IAC) and beyond.

The World YWCA delegation participates in the Women's March at AIDS 2008.

I remember attending my first IAC and how it radically changed my life ten years ago. I was a young woman recently diagnosed with HIV and not connected to the global AIDS movement. I had not disclosed my HIV status – nor had I ever met an activist or many people who were open about their HIV status.  My experience at the IAC became my springboard to disclosing my status and becoming an AIDS and women’s rights activist. More...