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Mixed reaction to UN declaration on AIDS

    JOHANNESBURG

    There has been mixed reaction in South Africa to a new declaration adopted during the three-day UN High Level Meeting on the pandemic which ended on Friday.

    Although the revised declaration promised, among other commitments, to double AIDS funding and increase access to treatment by 2010, some activists were not satisfied because not enough attention was paid to sex workers, homosexuals and injecting drug users.

    Sipho Mthathi, of the AIDS lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign, told the South African Broadcasting Corporation that the new declaration absolved world leaders of any accountability, while Nkululeko Nxesi, of the National Association of People Living with AIDS, was content with the focus placed on nutrition and prevention.

    Despite its shortcomings, UN officials believed the declaration still moved the fight against AIDS a step forward.

    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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