Lack of U.N. funding goals upsets global AIDS activists

Published Saturday, June 3, 2006

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - World leaders resisted setting exact financial targets yesterday for the fight against AIDS, drawing criticism from activists who said rich nations are too worried about having to pay the bill.

Rights groups and some delegations were also dismayed that a declaration capping the U.N. conference on AIDS failed to mention the people most at risk for the virus, including prostitutes, gay men and intravenous drug users. Instead, opposition from conservative Islamic and Roman Catholic countries meant they stuck to the language they have used for five years, only referring to "vulnerable groups."

"Abstinence is fine for those who are able to abstain, but ... human beings like to have sex, and they should not die because they do have sex," said Britain’s development secretary, Hilary Benn.

The meeting was meant to review efforts to fight AIDS and prepare national plans to combat the virus over the next 10 years. It came after a U.N. report said that 40 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS, and 8,000 die every day from the virus.

While the spread of the disease has slowed, delegates faced the reality that their efforts have not kept up with AIDS.

More women and girls have the virus than ever, and only a small fraction of those who need AIDS drugs actually get them.

"The epidemic continues to outpace us," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said. "Last year, globally, there were more new infections than ever before, and more people died than ever before."

U.N. officials and some rights groups praised the gains that were made, including a push for drug users to be given sterile needles and recognition that the fight against AIDS will require as much as $23 billion each year by 2010.

Activists said the final declaration, which is not binding, was a missed opportunity, and 69 groups denounced it outright. They said it lacked the bold proposals included in a plan of action agreed to at a similar conference in 2001.

The resistance to financial targets came mostly from leading donor nations, including the United States, the European Union, Japan and Australia. They feared that if they set goals for funding, they would be expected to bear the biggest burden.

They settled for a promise to set "ambitious national targets" in 2006 so that nations can reach universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010. The world spent $8.3 billion to fight AIDS in 2005.