In less than twenty years, 65 million people have been infected by the HIV virus, and over 33 million are living with it today. Last August, over 20,000 delegates travelled to Mexico City to attend the XVII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2008). The Senate of Mexico and the Inter-Parliamentary Union held a parliamentary event during the Conference which brought together over a hundred members of parliament and staff from twenty-five parliaments.
The parliamentarians were hosted by the President of the Senate of Mexico, Mr. Santiago Creel Miranda, and received briefings from Elhadj As Sy, Director of Partnerships and External Relations at UNAIDS, and Ms. Marleen Temmerman, a member of the Senate of Belgium and of the IPU Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS. The Senate President appealed for strong and well-informed political leadership that made sure that those already infected received adequate treatment and their rights were protected. That was the kind of leadership all members of parliament should provide; they had to build and maintain the political will to transform words into deeds.
UNAIDS Director, As Sy, concurred with that view. Parliamentary support and involvement were more vital than ever in the move towards providing universal access to treatment and ending stigma and discrimination. So much of the HIV/AIDS response was rooted in ensuring respect for human rights and equality between men and women, he said. Even if two thirds of all countries now had laws that protected HIV-positive persons from discrimination, there were serious problems in ensuring compliance.
There had been significant progress, said Senator Marleen Temmerman. More and better data was now available on the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS. Yet millions of people were not aware that they were HIV-positive. Prevention methods existed, but there were as yet no prevention methods that women could control themselves, leaving them doubly vulnerable. Mortality had decreased where antiretroviral (ARV) therapy was available. More than three million people were currently on ARV therapy, but the cost of the treatment placed it out of reach of the great majority of poor people in developing countries. There was an obvious need for policies and programmes to empower women in those countries. Prevention needed renewed attention and all individuals should have access to condoms and contraceptives. Providing access to treatment must be accelerated. Ten million people needed medication provided through strengthened health systems.
The members of parliament then broke into groups to pinpoint specific actions that parliamentarians could take to address the pandemic. One group pointed out the disturbing feminization of the pandemic and said priority should be given to feminizing the solution. Another focused on the need to fund education programmes. Several addressed the law-making aspect of parliamentary work and the need for parliamentarians to go out in the field to review the application of laws and policies and to report back to parliaments, which, in turn, should strengthen their institutional capacity to grapple with the pandemic.
The parliamentarians welcomed the decision by the United States to lift the entry ban on people infected with the HIV virus and encouraged the parliaments in other countries where travel restrictions applied to remove them and oppose mandatory HIV testing of immigrants and refugees.
The parliamentary event concluded with a call for the IPU to strengthen its HIV/AIDS activities and take the lead in organizing a new “political leadership” track of the International AIDS Conference when it reconvenes for its XVIII session in Vienna in 2010. The IPU, working together with parliaments and parliamentary and political organizations, should start preparing now to come to Vienna in full force.
