Stephen Lewis and Canadian Civil Society Groups Demand Action on Global AIDS Crisis
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Cross-posted from: GTAG@yahoogroups.ca
FOUR STEPS FOR CANADA: STEPHEN LEWIS AND CANADIAN CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS DEMAND ACTION ON GLOBAL AIDS CRISIS
Platform presented to Prime Minister Stephen Harper in advance of XVI International AIDS Conference
TORONTO, August 9, 2006 — Stephen Lewis, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa, today joined the Global Treatment Access Group (GTAG) and the Make Poverty History Campaign in calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to take decisive action in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
The Global AIDS Crisis: Four Steps for Canada is a civil society platform for action to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS globally and to improve the quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS. The platform has already been endorsed by more than 80 organizations across Canada, including the labour movement, faith groups, AIDS organizations, student groups, human rights advocates, and humanitarian and development organizations.
“Of the five million people who will be infected with HIV this year, 95 per cent live in low- and middle-income countries. The Canadian government has the moral responsibility to take action,” Lewis said. “The world’s eyes are on us. We must show that we are ready to lead.”
“Canada and the other G8 countries have the means to do more in the global fight against AIDS, but leadership on these life-and-death issues continues to falter,” said Joanne Csete, GTAG spokesperson and Executive Director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. “Our platform is reasonable, realistic and achievable. What we need now is for Ottawa to stand up and lead the other G8 members by example. Will the Prime Minister take these four steps for Canada to help fulfill the G8’s promise of universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment by 2010?”
An advance copy of the platform for action was presented to the Prime Minister last week. Here are the four steps Canada should take to do its part:
• Pay our fair share of prevention and treatment in developing countries. Canada should commit to a binding timetable to bring its official development assistance to 0.7% of gross national income, double its research and development funding for HIV prevention tools such as microbicides and vaccines, and show leadership by contributing 5% of the total funding needed by the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria over each of the next five years.
• Invest in the public health care systems of developing countries. Canada should provide development assistance for public health care systems in developing countries, support greater retention of health care workers in developing countries, and implement policies to better train and retain health professionals in Canada as an alternative to recruiting health professionals from developing countries.
• Cancel the debts of developing countries to free up resources to fight AIDS and poverty. Canada should promote the immediate and unconditional cancellation of 100% of the debt owed by countries burdened by AIDS, debt and poverty.
• Follow through on commitments to make medicines affordable to developing countries. Lewis and GTAG members are asking Canadians to support the platform, already widely endorsed across Canadian civil society, by visiting http://www.aidslaw.ca/gtag or http://www.makepovertyhistory.ca/e/take-action/e-alerts/2006-07-21.html
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Claudio Schuftan
mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn