World AIDS Day 2012
29 NOVEMBER 2012 | GENEVA
Blogs
United Nations Secretary General
The Millennium Development Goal for HIV/AIDS is clear: to halt and begin to reverse the epidemic by 2015. Thanks to the determined efforts of governments and civil society, success is in sight. […] I also urge stronger efforts to eliminate the stigma and discrimination that increase risk for vulnerable populations. The Report of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law: “Risks, Rights and Health” emphasizes how outmoded laws, misguided judiciary systems and punitive policing practices – based not on science but on fear and prejudice – fuel the epidemic. We must make information, testing and treatment available to all, so every man, woman and child can enjoy their fundamental right to the medical care and essential services that will end this devastating epidemic.
UNAIDS Executive Director
To the millions who have come together with compassion and determination on this World AIDS Day, we say: “Your blood, sweat and tears are changing the world.” We have moved from despair to hope. Far fewer people are dying from AIDS. 25 countries have reduced new infections by more than 50%. I want these results in every country. The pace of progress is quickening. It is unprecedented—what used to take a decade is now being achieved in just 24 months. Now that we know rapid and massive scale up of HIV programmes is possible, we need to do more. Friends, we only have a thousand days left before the deadline of the 2015 global AIDS targets. So today, on World AIDS Day, let us renew our commitment to getting to zero. Zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS-related deaths.