The University of Kwazulu-Natal, in Durban, South Africa, has conferred an honorary degree on the UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé, to recognize his contribution to the global response to HIV.

Mr Sidibé was awarded a Doctor of Administration from the university’s College of Law and Management Studies during a graduation ceremony for students. The university said Mr Sidibé’s leadership and advocacy had led to an unprecedented global commitment to the AIDS response.

In his address to the students, Mr Sidibé urged them to have passion for everything they do, to show compassion for others at all times and to share their knowledge generously.

The University of KwaZulu-Natal is renowned for its excellence in scholarship, innovation and community engagement. The university is home to the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa, the UNAIDS Collaborating Centre for HIV Research and Policy.

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The UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé, has met South Africa’s Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa, and the Minister of Health, Aaron Motsoaledi in Pretoria, South Africa, to discuss the country’s ongoing response to HIV.

South Africa is the country with the highest number of people living with HIV in the world: 6.5 million people. However, the country continues to scale up treatment and prevention services as part of the UNAIDS Fast-Track approach to ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030, and is showing results—around 340 000 people were newly infected with HIV in 2014, down from 600 000 in 2000.

This year promises to be particularly significant for South Africa’s AIDS response as the country will host the 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban in July. Mr Ramaphosa described it is a key opportunity to showcase the turnaround in the South African epidemic since the International AIDS Conference was last hosted in Durban, in 2000.  

Mr Ramaphosa also stated that South Africa will send a delegation to attend the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS in New York, United States of America, to be held in June.

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During a visit to Swaziland, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé met His Majesty King Mswati III and discussed the country’s ongoing response to the AIDS epidemic. Mr Sidibé commended His Majesty for his personal leadership and commitment to Fast-Track the end of the AIDS epidemic.

Mr Sidibé praised the country for increasing domestic resources for the AIDS response through the Swaziland HIV Investment Case. As investment is scaled up, more people are accessing antiretroviral therapy, with coverage estimated at 60% of adults and 43% of children living with HIV.

Swaziland has also successfully expanded services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, with new child HIV infections reduced by 63% between 2009 and 2014. The country has achieved the goal of 90% of pregnant women living with HIV receiving antiretroviral medicines. This should further reduce the mother-to-child transmission of HIV rate, which stands at 1% at six weeks of age and 8% at the end of breastfeeding.

During his visit, Mr Sidibé also met the acting Prime Minister, Paul Dlamini, and the Minister of Health, Sibongile Ndlela Simelane. He underlined the importance of leaving no one behind in the AIDS response, including women, girls and key populations, and stressed the importance of prevention in the ongoing response to the epidemic.

During the courtesy call to the King, Mr Sidibé invited His Majesty to attend the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS, which will take place from 8 to 10 June in New York, United States of America. 

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UNAIDS and Globo have partnered in Brazil to launch an original series for the Internet called Eu Só Quero Amar (All I Want is Love). The web series focuses on Henrique and Camila, a young serodiscordant couple who decide to fight for their relationship despite the obstacles in their way, including stigma and discrimination.

The web series—a spin-off of the TV series Malhação: Seu Lugar no Mundo (Malhação: Your Place in the World), which airs every weekday to an estimated daily audience of 20 million people—is comprised of five episodes, to be released each Saturday during April.

Mixing fiction and documentary elements, the series will tell the stories of young serodiscordant couples, in which one member is living with HIV and the other is not. The aim of the web series is to reach out to a young audience and deepen the debate on social life and relationships among serodiscordant couples, showcasing not only the social challenges they face but also the possibilities for people who want to enjoy a healthy and well-informed sexuality with their HIV-positive partners.

As part of the partnership with Globo, UNAIDS is providing advice for the AIDS-related scenes, supporting the author, screenwriters and producers in fine-tuning language and terminology, and contributing ideas for new topics, scenes and real stories that can add value to dialogues and characters.

Globo is the largest media group in Brazil and owner of one of the world’s most influent TV channels in terms of audience. More than 91 million people, just under half the country’s population, tune in to it every day. In recent years, Globo has started to invest in its Internet branch, Gshow, through which original web series and spin-offs of its soap operas are helping the cannel to strengthen its outreach.

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On 8 April, the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Mogens Lykketoft, convened an informal session to brief United Nations Member States on the 2016 United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS, which will take place in New York, United States of America, from 8 to 10 June 2016.

During the session, the Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS, Jan Beagle, presented the United Nations Secretary-General’s report, On the Fast-Track to end the AIDS epidemic. The report highlights that ending the AIDS epidemic is possible by 2030, but only if a Fast-Track approach is taken over the next five years. United Nations Member States welcomed the report and expressed strong support for efforts to Fast-Track the response and end the AIDS epidemic as part of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The session was presided over by the President of the General Assembly and the two co-facilitators of the High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS—Patricia Mwaba Kasese-Bota, Permanent Representative of Zambia to the United Nations, and Jürg Lauber, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations.

Representatives of 115 Member States attended the session, many at ambassadorial level. The participants highlighted the need to adopt a bold Political Declaration on Ending AIDS, stating that it would be essential to enabling a Fast-Track approach.

The President of the General Assembly also briefed Member States on the Informal Interactive Civil Society Hearing, which took place on 6 April, and called on Member States to extend full support to civil society participation at the High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS. He also stressed that the meeting provided a critical opportunity to end the AIDS epidemic in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Dr Kasese-Bota closed the meeting by noting that she and her fellow co-facilitator are extremely encouraged by Member States’ expressions of support. Feedback from this meeting and from the civil society hearing will be used to inform the zero draft of the United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS.

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The co-facilitators of the 2016 United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS, Patricia Mwaba Kasese-Bota, Permanent Representative of Zambia to the United Nations, and Jürg Lauber, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations, have released the zero draft of the 2016 Political Declaration: on the Fast-Track to end AIDS in the age of sustainable development.

The zero draft reflects on the achievements made so far in the response to AIDS. It also sets out a clear agenda to Fast-Track the response by 2020 and put the world on track to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030.

The zero draft was presented to United Nations Member States on 18 April. The co-facilitators will begin open, transparent and inclusive informal consultations on the draft declaration on 25 April. Member States will negotiate and finalize the declaration over the next few weeks, which will be then be presented for adoption at the High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS on 8 June. The co-facilitators will also hold an informal meeting with civil society, the private sector and other relevant stakeholders on 26 April, which will be webcast live at http://webtv.un.org/live/.

The United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS will take place in New York, United States of America, from 8 to 10 June. It will bring together high-level representatives of United Nations Member States, people living with HIV, civil society, the private sector and other partners to focus the world’s attention on the importance of a Fast-Track approach to the AIDS response over the next five years. The Political Declaration adopted at the meeting will guide and monitor the AIDS response towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

Feedback and comments on the zero draft can be made by email to the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations at HLM2016@icaso.org, by no later than Friday, 22 April.

UNAIDS has appointed CNN news anchor Alejandra Oraa as a UNAIDS Regional Goodwill Ambassador for Latin America and the Caribbean. The announcement was made on the occasion of World Health Day 2016.

In her new role, Ms Oraa will work towards promoting an integral approach to HIV based on human rights, as part of the health agenda for women and youth, and will raise public awareness and understanding of gender inequality.

During the coming year, Ms Oraa will visit several countries in the region, where she will have the opportunity to hear about best practices and lessons learned from the HIV response, especially with regard to women and girls.

Alejandra Oraa, born in Vargas, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is anchor of Café CNN, a morning news programme on CNN in Spanish broadcast from Atlanta, United States of America, and Destinos CNN, a weekly TV programme on the world’s most popular tourist destinations. 

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Human rights experts have called for concerted efforts to end human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

A report launched today during the 58th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, being held in Banjul, Gambia, summarizes a historic dialogue that took place in November 2015 between United Nations human rights experts and representatives of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

The report, Ending violence and other human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity, highlights grave violations that take place in all regions of the world against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people.

The report notes the impact of these abuses on the health of LGBTI people and their access to HIV prevention and care, but also emphasizes positive developments made around the world in protecting the rights of LGBTI people.

In 2014, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted a resolution calling for the protection of people against violence and other violations on the basis of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. Commenting on the launch of the report, Pansy Tlakula, Chairperson of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, said, “Violence and other human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity constitute universal challenges that require concerted responses by national, regional and United Nations human rights institutions.”

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has established a rapporteurship on the rights of LGBTI people. James Cavallaro, President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, highlighted a fundamental element of the work of the Commission. “Bringing the voices of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people into our work is to challenge the invisibility of the serious human rights violations that they continue to face throughout the Americas and hold States accountable for these violations,” he said.

The United Nations Human Rights Council has passed two resolutions condemning violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. “The dialogue allowed us to share good practices to guide our common struggle to combat impunity and to ensure the protection and realization of the human rights of all individuals, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people,” said Christof Heyns, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

The UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, said on the launch of the report, “Ending violence, criminalization, discrimination and other human rights violations against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people are priorities for our organizations and for the entire United Nations system.”

Civil society organizations have also welcomed the report. “Ongoing collaboration and openness to experience-sharing between regional and international human rights systems reinforces the idea of the universality of human rights, and can only help advance the protection of human rights for everyone, including for LGBTI people,” said Sibongile Ndashe, Executive Director of the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa.