Thursday 09 June, 2016
Información para la Prensa N°:179/16
Starting today, Argentina is participating in the UN High-Level Meeting on Ending Aids, which promotes a Fast-Track Strategy to attain various ambitious goals by 2020, including such targets as fewer than 500,000 people infected with HIV and fewer than 500,000 AIDS-related deaths, as well as eliminating HIV-related discrimination.
The High-Level Meeting will be held until Friday 10 June and is attended by Representatives from the 193 UN Member States.
The Argentine Delegation is headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Foradori and is made up of the Minister of Health, Jorge Lemus, and more than twenty civil society representatives involved in the fight against this disease.
In his address before the General Assembly, Deputy Foreign Minister Foradori stressed that the Constitution of the Argentine Republic recognizes health as an essential right that must be guaranteed to all of its inhabitants, without exception, and stated that "Argentina is convinced that the global commitment to ending the AIDS epidemic, which is one of the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, represents an unprecedented opportunity to overcome one of the most devastating health problems of present times."
The Argentine Deputy Foreign Minister underscored that "Argentina is developing a principle that we hope will guide our international actions everywhere on all aspects of the global agenda: the Non-Indifference principle. Indeed, we are not indifferent to the suffering and hardship caused by scourges such as war, natural disasters and epidemics like AIDS. Argentina has developed and strengthened a public policy for prevention and access to both diagnoses and treatments. This response has become a State policy which is fully financed from the national budget. Argentina guarantees universal and free provision of antiretroviral treatment, as well as access to universal, free and confidential HIV testing and diagnosis."
Argentina’s Deputy Foreign Minister also asserted that "this delegation, of which I have the honour to be the Head, is marked by the significant richness provided by its diversity and bears witness to the fact that one of the government’s aims, the union of the Argentine people, in this and all other matters, is a key attribute of our national objective."
It is worth highlighting that Argentina has actively participated in the drafting of the Political Declaration already adopted at this High-Level Meeting, thus reaffirming its commitment to ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. The Declaration highlights that it is essential to consolidate the progress made and redouble the efforts required to implement a strategy during the next fifteen years to end the epidemic.
