Vienna, 1 December 2015 - This year's World AIDS Day provides a platform for delivering a powerful global call to action to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat for everyone by 2030.
Today, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) joins governments, civil society organizations and UNAIDS to raise awareness about the need to fast-track the global AIDS response.
This World AIDS Day also arrives at a pivotal time in the overall AIDS response. To end AIDS by 2030, we will need a focused investment in HIV prevention, treatment and care.
Just as importantly, we will need to build bridges between health, justice and law enforcement.
Such bridges are vital. Collective action and determined cooperation can unlock the policy and legal obstacles that hinder access to HIV services. This includes expanding the comprehensive packages of interventions needed to respond to HIV, as well as ensuring equal access to HIV services.
Ending AIDS by 2030 is about embracing shared responsibility and expressing global solidarity. We have the global commitments and strategies to achieve this goal, but we must act quickly and deliberately.
I welcome the adoption of the ambitious and bold 17 Sustainable Development Goals in September this year. The world, in doing so, has reaffirmed its unalloyed commitment to ending the AIDS epidemic.
UNODC, for its part, will continue to place science, justice, dignity, human rights and public health at the core of the international response to HIV in its work with people in prison and people who use drugs.
On World AIDS Day, I call upon everyone to continue to work in partnership towards the ultimate goal of ending AIDS by 2030, and by achieving this goal support millions of people around the world.
UN Secretary-General's Statement
For further information please contact:
David Dadge
Spokesperson, UNODC
Phone: (+43 1) 26060-5629
Mobile: (+43-699) 1459-5629
Email: david.dadge[at]unvienna.org
