UN General Assembly to Hold Special Session on HIV/AIDS

Joe De Capua

Washington

21 Jun 2001 14:13 UTC

The UN General Assembly will hold a special 1)session next week on HIV/AIDS. At the end of the session, it is to issue a Declaration of Commitment outlining what should be done to battle the 2)pandemic.

The head of a 3)coalition of non-governmental organizations says political and cultural disagreements may severely 4)weaken the document. As 5)negotiations continue on the Declaration of Commitment, several issues are being hotly debated.

UN delegates have been working for months, trying to come up with a final 6)draft of the declaration. They have sought 7)consensus from their governments and input from non-government organizations.

Richard Burzynski is executive director of ICASO, the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations. "We are still 8)deadlocked on a couple of key issues that some of the countries are having complications with, including the United States," he says, "and those two issues are: including in the list of vulnerable populations men who have sex with men, drug users, and sex workers and their clients; and the second major issue [on which] there seems to be an impasse is the human rights issue of having a strongly worded, pro-active human rights-based approach, language that incorporates the references to the international 9)guidelines on HIV/AIDS and human rights."

He says the United States is among the countries objecting on moral grounds to including the language "men having sex with men" in the Declaration of Commitment. "Declarations are only going to be as good as people who want to follow them and people who can 10)monitor them," says Mr. Burzynski, "and trying to get good and strong opinion around the world to suggest that this is what we really need is critical. If we do not have people suggesting and stating openly that this is a good declaration, it will be 11)shelved. It will be put behind the 12)drawers and it will not be referenced as much."

Mr. Burzynski also says a weakly worded declaration may result in fewer resources and less funding from rich nations to fight AIDS.

The special session of the UN General Assembly will be held June 25-27. The Declaration of Commitment is to be issued on the final day.

(1)      session[5seF(E)n]n.会议, 开庭

(2)      pandemic[pAn5demIk]adj.全国流行的

(3)      coalition[kEJE5lIF(E)n]n.合并, 接合, 联合

(4)      weaken[5wi:kEn]v.削弱, (使)变弱

(5)      negotiation[nI^EJFI5eIF(E)n]n.商议, 谈判, 流通

(6)      draft[drB:ft; (?@) drAft]n.草稿, 草案vt.起草,设计v.草拟

(7)      consensus[kEn5sensEs]n.一致同意, 多数人的意见, 舆论

(8)      deadlock[5dedlRk]n.死锁, 僵局

(9)      guidelines n.指导方针

(10)      monitor[5mRnItE(r)]n.监听器, 监视器v.监控

(11)      shelve[Felv]vt.缓议, 搁置, 解雇vi.倾斜

(12)      drawer[5drC:E(r)]n.抽屉, 画家