At the 63rd session of the General Assembly held in New York on 16 June 2009, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon presented a report on the progress made in the implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS.

This year’s report shows that despite important progress in the area of access to antiretroviral therapy and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, considerable challenges remain. Though many commitments have been made by Member States to protect the rights of people living with HIV and people vulnerable to HIV infection, many countries have laws and policies that are inconsistent with the commitments and result in reduced access to essential HIV services and commodities (laws and regulations that present obstacles to effective HIV prevention, treatment, care; laws that restrict the entry, stay and residence of people living with HIV; laws that criminalize men who have sex with men, trangendered people and lesbians; laws that criminalize sex workers).

The theme “Universal Access and Human Rights” for the upcoming World AIDS day has been chosen by United Nations Secretary-General, the World AIDS Campaign and UNAIDS to address the critical need to protect human rights and attain access for all to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. It also acts as a call to countries to remove laws that discriminate against people living with HIV, women and marginalized groups.

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