MOBILIZING ACTION FOR AN AIDS FREE GENERATION

none 27 Mar 2007 – 11:57

by mlepeska

Concluding Statement of Commitment from the Children and HIV/AIDS Advocacy Summit March 13-15, 2007, Brussels, Belgium

During three exciting and inspiring days, a group of 40 advocates and activists representing national and global organizations, campaigns, networks, and coalitions met in Brussels, Belgium, to define a platform for joint advocacy to achieve the first-ever AIDS Free Generation. Bringing together perspectives from Africa, Asia, and the global North—and from the grassroots to the global arena—we share a deep concern that the lives, rights, and potential of millions of the world’s children are being severely eroded by the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS. Despite the beginnings of progress, children still remain largely absent from national and international political responses to the pandemic. This is no longer acceptable.

Together, we have defined a framework for political change and mobilized our collective determination to bring about that change. We are aware that this is a dynamic process and one that will require us to involve young people themselves, to build wider alliances, and to inspire many others to join us. We will need to persuade diverse stakeholders across the global South and North, including governments, international institutions, parliamentarians, the private sector, and others, to hear the voices of children whose lives and futures are being impacted by HIV/AIDS. We firmly believe that an AIDS Free Generation is an urgent and realistic goal that, working with others, we can help achieve.

We will advocate for the realization of the following commitments which, together, form the necessary components of the platform for an AIDS Free Generation:

  • Achieve Universal Basic Education: Ensure that all children have access to free, safe, comprehensive, quality basic education, paying particular attention to the needs of girls, and ensuring that schools can play an effective role in HIV prevention and the protection and care of children in AIDS-affected societies;
  • Accelerate Youth HIV Prevention: Prevent new HIV infections among young people, with a focus on ensuring access to comprehensive sexuality education, empowering girls, and promoting gender equality;
  • Eliminate Pediatric HIV/AIDS: Prevent HIV infection in children and ensure treatment of all HIV-infected children through a comprehensive, family-centered approach to care and treatment and the provision of affordable medicines, diagnostics, and health services;
  • Ensure Social Protection: Provide comprehensive social protection for AIDS-affected and other vulnerable children, with a focus on preventing stigma and discrimination, providing families and communities with the resources needed to protect children’s well-being, and ensuring access to essential services and care for all orphans and vulnerable children;
  • Mobilize Full Financing for an AIDS Free Generation: Secure specific funding allocations within broader development and AIDS budgets, nationally and internationally, and strengthen advocacy in the global South to ensure that funds are utilized effectively.

We are committed to working together and with others to build a global network to implement an action plan—with urgency, courage and determination—to transform these goals into a new reality for and with children and young people. We cannot allow another generation to be lost. We refuse to allow any more children to be born HIV-positive, to die without treatment, to lose their parents, teachers, and caregivers to HIV/AIDS, to be left orphaned and vulnerable, to have their potential unfulfilled, to suffer stigma and discrimination, or to be forced into abusive or exploitative situations. The next generation and all future generations must be free of AIDS and its devastating impacts. The fight starts here and now.

Advocacy Summit Concluding Statement.pdf (26,36 kB)

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