The 2026 United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS: An essential accountability mechanism for the global HIV response
On 24 April 2026, United Nations Member States voted to adopt the 2026 HLM Modalities Resolution (A/Res/80/256) committing the United Nations to hold the next High-Level Meeting (HLM) on HIV/AIDS on 22–23 June 2026.
This meeting—held every five years since 2001 at the UN Secretariat in New York—reinforces the role of the UN as the primary political mechanism for accountability and commitment in the global HIV response.
The current HLM Modalities Resolution sets the following scope and objectives for the 2026 High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS:
“Review progress on the 2025 targets and other commitments made in the 2021 Political Declaration, including successes, best practices, lessons learned, obstacles and gaps, challenges and opportunities, including with regard to partnership and cooperation, and recommendations to guide and monitor the HIV/AIDS response beyond 2025, including new concrete commitments to accelerate action to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as well as to promote the renewed commitment and engagement of leaders, countries, communities and partners to accelerate and implement a comprehensive universal and integrated response to HIV/AIDS.”
This meeting will review progress against HIV since the 2021 High-Level Meeting and produce a new UN Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS. UN Member States will negotiate the text of the 2026 Political Declaration and consider its adoption.
The new UN Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS will establish the direction of the global HIV response for the next five years; it serves as the only global accountability mechanism for all UN Member States’ efforts on HIV/AIDS.
The 2026 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS is mandated to feature new global targets for 2030; ideally, it will mirror those in the Global AIDS Strategy 2026-2031 and reflect other recommendations from the 2026 UN Secretary General’s report on progress in implementing the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS that will be released at the end of May.
UN Member States’ support for the new Political Declaration will reflect their renewed commitment to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 and establish a framework for sustaining the response for years to come.
The 2026 High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS represents a decisive political moment. Important gains have been made, but progress is uneven and increasingly under threat. Failure to sustain momentum risks reversing progress, which would cost millions of lives and significantly increase future costs for the HIV response.
The 2026 UN High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS is particularly significant given shifts in the global political context—including intensified pressures on multilateralism, an evolving donor landscape and game-changing, new opportunities in HIV prevention and treatment.
Ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 is possible.
At a time of growing global uncertainty, the 2026 High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS is essential to reaffirm the world’s collective commitment to ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, to ensure the HIV response remains visible and well resourced, to protect hard-won gains and to reaffirm the UN’s unique and essential leadership role in the global HIV response.
Leadership of the 2026 UN High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS
The President of the General Assembly (PGA) Annalena Baerbock and her office (OPGA) have overall responsibility for the preparations, management and leadership of the High-Level Meeting.
HLM-related consultations with UN Member States (e.g. on the draft Modalities Resolution and the draft Political Declaration) are conducted through two Co-facilitators, who are appointed by the PGA. The 2026 Co-facilitators are the Ambassadors of Botswana and Georgia to the UN in New York.
UNAIDS provides HLM-related support to the UN Secretary-General, the PGA, the Co-facilitators and Member States, including via advocacy and mobilization for the HLM and technical inputs to the deliberations.
The PGA, with support of UNAIDS and in consultation with Member States, will finalize the organizational arrangements of the HLM, including the identification of themes and finalization of the panel discussions, no later than 25 May 2026.
The Co-facilitators will conduct timely, transparent and inclusive consultations with all Member States to negotiate a new Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS beginning immediately after the Multistakeholder Hearing.
A key part of the process supporting the HLM on HIV/AIDS is a Multistakeholder Hearing occurring on 14 May (see PGA letter and Concept Note). This hearing occurs under the auspices of the President of the General Assembly and is supported by a Multistakeholder Task Force - and UNAIDS.
The Multi-Stakeholder Hearing provides a key platform for civil society, communities and other stakeholders to propose priorities they wish to see reflected in the new Political Declaration.
The 2026 Multistakeholder Hearing will be a hybrid format (in-person and online).