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G8 fails to set up AIDS working group - trade unions

    JOHANNESBURG

    Trade unions attending the UN High Level Meeting on HIV and AIDS are seeking support for the creation of a permanent working group on HIV/AIDS by the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations.

    During its annual gathering last year in Gleneagles, Scotland, the G8 agreed to a mechanism for ensuring progress on its policy commitments from one meeting to the next, but has yet to set this up.

    Alan Leather, coordinator of the international trade union delegation to the UN meeting, noted in a statement that unions, business and other civil society groups had been lobbying G8 governments since February this year to create the high-level working group during the upcoming G8 conference in July, with little success.

    Individual letters submitted by Leather to each government delegation stressed that the proposed working group would serve to keep the G8 responsible by tracking and facilitating delivery of their commitments.

    "All governments, not only those facing high or moderate HIV infection rates, must speak up today," Leather said.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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