Brussels, 09/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - In Strasbourg on Thursday 8 July, with the adoption of a joint resolution (S&D, ALDE, Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL) on HIV/AIDS ahead of the international conference to be held from 18-23 July in Vienna, the European Parliament called on the Commission and Council to keep their commitments and to intensify their efforts to deal with the problem of HIV/AIDS as a worldwide public health priority. It called for prevention, treatment, care and assistance to combat AIDS to be geared to human rights, including as part of the European Union's development cooperation. It urged the Commission and Council to support the efforts made to decriminalise the transmission of HIV/AIDS and exposure to the virus, notably by encouraging the recognition of HIV/AIDS as a disability under current and future anti-discrimination legislation. It also invited the Baltic States, Russia and Ukraine to establish policies allowing a robust fight against HIV/AIDS in their respective countries.
The Commission and member states are invited, in the resolution, to tackle the question of women's needs with respect to prevention, treatment and care relating to HIV/AIDS, considering this as an essential measure for containing the epidemic, mainly by enlarging access to reproductive and sexual health programmes which include screening, advisory services and prevention on HIV/AIDS, and by addressing underlying socio-economic factors that contribute to women's exposure to the risk of contamination by the HIV/AIDS virus. Such factors include gender inequality, poverty, the lack of economic and educational possibilities, as well as the lack of protection from the legal and human rights point of view.
The Parliament states its great concern about the fact that half of all new HIV cases affect women and children. It therefore invites the Commission and member states to meet the needs of children and young people for prevention against HIV/AIDS, treatment, care and support, and to ensure that they have access to the proper medical services and, in particular, the early screening of infants, appropriate and affordable anti-retroviral medication, as well as medico-social support and social and legal protection. It also calls on the Commission and member states to support programmes for reducing the damaging effect of infection on prisoners and injecting drug users. It calls on the Commission and Council to cooperate with UNAIDS and other partners to improve the gathering of evidence allowing progress to be calculated at global, national and programme level in order to reduce the stigma and discrimination attached to HIV/AIDS infection, including specific evidence on key populations and human rights questions, as well as protection mechanisms linked to HIV at international level. The Parliament invites all member states and the Commission to overturn the “worrying decline” in funding for the promotion of sexual and reproductive health rights in developing countries. It supports policies for the treatment of sexually transmissible infections and for the provision of ways to ensure reproductive health through medication, allowing lives to be saved, with the provision of contraceptives, especially condoms. It criticises the bilateral and regional trade agreements which provide provisions going beyond the WTO TRIPS agreements (TRIPS-plus) and which are a major obstacle - if not de facto restriction - of safeguard measures stipulated in the Doha declaration on TRIPS in order to ensure that health takes pride of place compared to commercial interests. The EP also underlines the responsibility incumbent upon states that put pressure on developing countries in order to encourage them to sign free trade agreements. The Parliament emphasises the fact that the granting of compulsory licenses and the differential price level have not entirely resolved the problem, and calls on the Commission to suggest new solutions to ensure real accessibility to treatment for HIV/AIDS, at an affordable price.
This resolution was adopted by 400 votes in favour, 166 against and 55 abstentions.
The number of persons suffering from HIV/AIDS continues to rise, with around 33.4 million persons affected in the world and 2.7 million newly infected in 2008, which means that HIV/AIDS is a matter of urgency worldwide, requiring a global, exceptional and integral response, the common resolution points out. HIV/AIDS remains one of the main causes of death in the world, as it was the cause of two million deaths in 2008. The number of new infections continues to rise despite the diffusion of treatment and, in 2009, two thirds of all those who needed treatment still had not gained access to it, which means that 10 million people requiring treatment did not have access to effective medication. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most heavily affected part of the world, with 22.4 million people suffering from HIV/AIDS and 71% of all new cases of HIV/AIDS infection in 2008. (O.J./transl.jl)