G8 leaders challenged to keep promise on global HIV/AIDS

A network of international NGOs has urged governments at the current "Group of Eight" (G8) summit in Georgia, US, to honour commitments made during the signing of the UN global AIDS compact three years ago.

In a call to action, to be presented at the gathering, the World AIDS Campaign (WAC), will ask G8 leaders to provide the practical, financial and political support necessary to increase prevention, care and treatment to tackle the global HIV/AIDS pandemic.

"It's easy to make promises, but it's much harder to keep them," the director of the WAC, Marcel van Soest, said in a statement.

"In 2003, the G8 governments promised to fulfil their shared obligations to deliver on the commitments they agreed to in the UN Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS in 2001. Yet in 2004, AIDS is not even on the G8 agenda. If anything, we are moving backwards."

Initiated by UNAIDS in 1997 to bring attention to the most pressing issues surrounding the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the campaign has since evolved into a global movement advocating on behalf of all people living with or affected by the disease.

The WAC said it believed there could be no progress against the pandemic without a comprehensive and consistent response from the global community.

It also urged Western governments to increase their funding for overseas development assistance aimed at reducing poverty - a key factor in the spread of HIV across the globe.

"Twenty years after the discovery of the HI virus, the need to bring this devastating epidemic in the developing world under
control has never been greater," said van Soest.

He said immediate action was necessary with an estimated 40 million people infected worldwide, 5 million new infections and 3 million HIV-related deaths in 2003.

"The tragedy is that we know what works and we can reverse the epidemic with enough resources and political leadership. That is why we are insisting that governments keep their promises," Soest added.