UN to host high-level meeting on HIV & AIDS

The United Nations will host a high-level Meeting on HIV & AIDS from 8-10 June 2021 according to the UNAIDS website. During the event world leaders will come together to discuss the five-year results of their combined work to reduce the impact of HIV. The high-level meeting will take place as the world marks 40 years since the first case of AIDS was reported, and 25 years since the formation of UNAIDS.

“World leaders must seize the opportunity offered by this new United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting on HIV and AIDS to maintain their focus and commitment on ending AIDS as a public health threat as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” said Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director. “The AIDS epidemic is unfinished business and must be ended for everyone everywhere, including for young women and adolescent girls and for other groups of people disproportionately affected by HIV. The right to health belongs to all of us.”

For several years now UNAIDS has been developing a new global AIDS strategy for 2021–2026. The final project will be considered for adoption in March of this year.

The new global AIDS strategy is based on goals that guarantee equal rights and protection for all people, regardless of nationality, gender, and sexual orientation. The goal of the strategy is to reduce the number of new HIV infections and deaths from AIDS-related diseases.

Given the constraints imposed by measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, it has not yet been decided if the high-level meeting will be in-person, virtual or a hybrid of the two.