UNAIDS welcomes the announcement by the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, to more than double Australia’s funding for AIDS from AUS$ 250 million (US$ 180 million) to AUS$600 million (US$ 435 million) by 2010. The announcement was made in tandem with the appointment of Australia’s first Special Representative on HIV/AIDS.

UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS, today welcomes the announcement made by Hilary Benn, UK International Development Secretary, of increased funding to UNAIDS and to UNFPA to help tackle the global AIDS epidemic and improve sexual and reproductive health for women and young people in developing countries.

UNAIDS particularly commends the agreement on supporting the United Nations General Assembly Special Session Declaration on HIV/AIDS and the summit’s statement on paragraph 6 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration on TRIPS, dealing with ensuring availability of medicines for those most in need.

UNAIDS today calls on the International Monetary Fund to prioritise the impact of the AIDS epidemic and the need of the government of Zambia to invest in a sustained and urgent response, when reviewing the country's progress in meeting the conditions of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility agreed in April this year.

The Joint United Nations Programme (UNAIDS) welcomes the decision taken by women health ministers today to form an international network to address the growing inequalities women face in accessing basic health services, including HIV care and prevention services.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) sees the Team Joachim Franz initiative as an innovative project which combines the use of sport with AIDS education.

Discrimination against women, both legal and de facto, renders them disproportionately vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. Women's subordination in the family and in public life is one of the root causes of the rapidly increasing rate of infection among women. Systematic discrimination based on gender also impairs women's ability to deal with the consequences of their own infection and/or infection in the family, in social, economic and personal terms.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic poses serious human rights challenges - for example, unequal access to HIV/AIDS-related treatments remains a global reality. If countries are seriously committed to protecting the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, then this inequality must be addressed. The problem is urgent. In poor countries, millions of people with HIV/AIDS need antiretroviral treatment immediately and very few of these are on antiretroviral treatment. Without accelerated prevention and treatment the AIDS epidemic will continue destroying communities, health care systems and economies, placing a shadow upon the future of entire countries.

The U.S. government is to be commended for both seeking to enhance and coordinate its own AIDS efforts, and affirming that the AIDS fight can only be won through a concrete partnership between the international community, national governments, the private sector and people living with HIV/AIDS. UNAIDS stands ready to work with Randall L. Tobias, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, and U.S. country teams to scale up the AIDS response on the ground in the 15 target countries worldwide.

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