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Thursday, October 24, 2024
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Laos Participates in UN General Assembly on HIV/AIDS

This Week

The United Nations General Assembly convened the Plenary Meeting on the Implementation of the Declaration of Commitment yesterday on HIV/AIDS and the Political Declarations on HIV/AIDS, which were adopted by the General Assembly on June 8.

This Meeting provided a timely global review on the fight against HIV/AIDS and the progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goal 3 on “Good Health and Well-being,” ensuring that the world gets back on track to end HIV/AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

At the opening session, the President of the 76th Session of the General Assembly inaugurated the meeting. This was followed by the General Debate, presided over by Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Lao PDR to the United Nations. Several UN member states took turns delivering their statements on behalf of regional groups by highlighting the importance of enhancing international cooperation to support the global efforts to achieve health-related goals, including the 2030 target for ending the AIDS epidemic.

The Assembly acknowledged that a financing gap for addressing HIV/AIDS still exists and there is a need to further promote technology transfer, improve access to medicines in developing countries and to scale up capacity-building, research and development.

Despite some progress, the data released by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has shown that HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths are not declining fast enough to end the pandemic by 2030.

Against this backdrop, the international community reaffirmed its joint commitment and common responsibility in taking actions against HIV/AIDS to fully implement the commitments contained in the UN Declaration.

The most urgent tasks are to develop an HIV/AIDS vaccine, to provide appropriate medical treatments for all and to increase investment in research and development, science and innovation.

Shared responsibility and solidarity among all nations is more crucial than ever in order to increase and equally allocate resources to scale up universal health coverage. Every year, the United Nations has designated 1 December in commemoration of World AIDS Day.

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