On April 8, 2011, the United Nations was host to an informal interactive civil society hearing, bringing together over 400 civil society advocates with UN Member States, to address progress toward reaching universal access to HIV treatment, prevention, care, and support.
Members of the Civil Society Meeting (CSM) called for a renewed and urgent commitment from Member States to reach universal access goals by 2015. The document stresses that:
- Member States must recognize care and support as central to achieving universal access as well as Millennium Development Goals 4, 5 and 6, and other key goals in broader health and development agendas;
- Member States must include a commitment to support services (that include palliative care); and
- Member States must commit to Universal Access to comprehensive care and support services including psychosocial, physical, socio-economic, nutritional and legal care and support for adults and children living with, and affected by HIV, including caregivers.
The CSM Declaration also outlined recommendations in the areas of human rights, treatment and prevention, strengthening health care systems, financing and accountability.
The Civil Society Meeting is critical to the process, as United Nation Member States are currently drafting a new Outcome Document on HIV, to be adopted at a United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS on June 8, 2011. (This meeting also marks the 10th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Commitment to AIDS.)
