Young People Report on Governments’ Progress Achieving UNGASS Declaration of Commitment on HIV and AIDS

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This week world leaders from 191 United Nations member states meet to evaluate progress made on achieving the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS (DoC) five years after it was put into effect. The DoC contained specific targets that recognise the vulnerability of young people to HIV infection and established time-bound targets to be achieved by 2005 and 2010. 

Young leaders in HIV and AIDS from Ghana, Kenya, Pakistan, India, Japan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo researched and evaluated their governments’ progress in achieving the youth targets and authored National Youth Shadow Reports. The Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS South and North Secretariats provided input into the report writing process, structured by a research guide. 

Specifically, the DoC called to reduce, by 2005, the number of new HIV infections among young people aged 15-24 by 25 per cent. Currently over 6,000 young people are infected with HIV daily, and this number is increasing in most countries. Harmful policies driven by ethnocentrism and religious ideology create insurmountable barriers to evidence-based information, education and services, leaving young people not only vulnerable to infection, but also unable to access necessary care and support. Despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, many decision-makers refuse to recognise that HIV and AIDS is spread amongst youth primarily through unprotected sexual intercourse, and that abstinence-only until marriage policies ignore the realities faced by most youth worldwide. Such policies ignore the debilitating effects of poverty, lack of education, gender inequality, war and conflict, and sexual coercion that constitute the day to day realities to the largest generation of young people - one billion - in history. 

The DoC sought to ensure that by 2005, at least 90 per cent, and by 2010, at least 95 per cent of young men and women have access to information, education, including peer education and youth-specific HIV and AIDS education and services necessary to develop the life skills required to reduce their vulnerability to HIV infection, in full partnership with young people. UNICEF estimates that currently only approximately one in three young people have accurate knowledge on how HIV is transmitted and how to protect themselves from infection. Full partnerships with young people are few and far between, in both developed and developing countries. 

Finally, the DoC sought to ensure, by 2003, the development and implementation of multi-sectoral national strategies and financing plans for combating HIV and AIDS that involve partnerships with civil society and the business sector and the full participation of people living with HIV and AIDS, those in vulnerable groups and people most at risk, particularly women and young people. 

The authors of the National Youth Shadow Reports found that instead of halting or reversing the spread of HIV and AIDS, the lack of political will, financial commitment, access to information and services, and the lack of youth participation contribute greatly to the continuing rise of infections amongst young people. Though some countries are making progress in achieving these targets, the authors recommend the following concrete steps: 

  • Include young people, especially youth living with HIV and AIDS, in the design, implementation and evaluation of programmes and polices that are evidence-based, link sexual and reproductive health and rights with HIV and AIDS, and include full access to condoms;
  • Ensure that young people are prioritised in national AIDS policies and commissions, or create a separate youth HIV and AIDS policy, or include HIV and AIDS in the national youth policy;
  • Eliminate barriers to cooperation between government ministries and with civil society;
  • Create opportunities to build the capacity of young leaders and recognise them as legitimate actors in the fight against the spread of HIV and AIDS.

GYCA encourages government delegations and decision-makers to incorporate the findings of the National Youth Shadow Reports into their deliberations at the UNGASS AIDS 2006 Five Year Review Meeting, and to implement its recommendations upon return to home countries. GYCA has been lobbying country missions to ensure youth issues are taken into account, and has young leaders on the government delegations to UNGASS of Ghana, DRC, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Zambia. 

The Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS is a youth-led, UNAIDS and UNFPA-supported alliance of 1,600 youth leaders and adult allies working on HIV and AIDS worldwide. The Coalition, based at a North Secretariat in New York City and a South Secretariat in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, prioritises capacity building and technical assistance, networking and sharing of best practices, advocacy training, and preparation for international conferences. GYCA aims to empower youth with the skills, knowledge, resources, opportunities, and credibility they need to scale up HIV and AIDS interventions for young people, who make up over 50 per cent of the five million people infected with HIV each year. 

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=8435

For more information, contact:
Joya Banerjee, joya@youthaidscoalition.org
Azubike Nwokoye, azubike@youthaidscoalition.org
Email: info@youthaidscoalition.org
Website: http://ww.youthaidscoalition.org 

Youth Summit 

A youth summit is being held in New York from 29 – 30 May to prepare young people’s contribution to the 2006 UNGASS Review Meeting on AIDS. The summit, which is coordinated by Advocates for Youth and the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GYCA) in collaboration with UNFPA, aims to elevate the issue of youth and HIV and AIDS through the voices of young people themselves.

The Youth Summit will serve as a platform for approximately 40 young HIV, AIDS and sexual and reproductive rights activists from around the world. The Summit will provide a space for participants to discuss and identify key issues related to HIV and AIDS in different regions of the world and how they relate to young people’s sexual and reproductive health. 

More information

Please note that these reports are hosted by CRIN as a resource for Child Rights campaigners, researchers and other interested parties. Unless otherwise stated, they are not the work of CRIN and their inclusion in our database does not necessarily signify endorsement or agreement with their content by CRIN.