2006年VOA标准英语-HIV-Infected African Woman Addresses UN AIDS Me

By Peter Heinlein
United Nations
31 May 2006
 
An HIV-infected South African woman, in an address to the U.N. General Assembly, has appealed to world leaders to make AIDS treatments available to all. The appeal came on the first day of a high-level conference aimed at renewing the global fight against HIV/AIDS.

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Khensani Mavasa addresses UN General Assembly special session, May 31, 2006  
  

Kensani Mavasa of South Africa joined Secretary-General Kofi Annan, General Assembly President Jan Eliasson and UNAIDS Chief Dr. Peter Piot Wednesday in calling on world leaders to get serious about the AIDS pandemic.

Mavasa, representing a group called the Treatment Action Campaign, was introduced as the first HIV-positive person ever to address the assembly. She strode to the microphone wearing a T-shirt boldly proclaiming the fact. In an hard-hitting speech, she criticized African leaders in particular, for failing to honor commitments made at past AIDS conferences.

"I am a woman living openly with HIV," she said. "I am a person who have survived rapes¹ and other forms of abuse.  I call on African leaders sitting here to protect and promote the human rights of all people in vulnerable groups, particularly women and girls. We ask that you not fail us yet again." 

Mavasa pleaded with the assembled heads of state and ministers to ensure that AIDS drugs are available, so that when she falls ill, as she inevitably² will, she has access to treatments.

"Because of scientific advantages of the past 25 years, I have hope that when time comes for me to take treatment, it would be available," she said. "The entire world's HIV positive people deserve this hope.  All the 14,000 more who will be infected by the end of today deserve this hope. None of the 900 people who will die in my country deserve to die today."

Also addressing the gathering³, Secretary-General Annan observed that in the past 25 years, HIV/AIDS has gone from local obscurity to global emergency. He praised the progress made, noting that more than 70 of the 191 U.N. member states have quadrupled access to HIV testing and counseling services.

But he pointed⁴ out that most others have failed to meet commitments made at a similar session five years ago.

"The global financing target has been met," he said. "And the Global Fund I called for is now fully⁵ operational. Yet the vast majority of countries have fallen distressingly⁶ short of meeting the targets in the declaration. These shortcomings are deadly."

Mr. Annan said most countries have failed to ensure that young people understand HIV and how it can infect them. And he said governments have been slow to enact⁷ measures to fight the spread of AIDS among women and girls.

Acting⁸ U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator⁹ Mark Dybul is briefing delegates to the conference on President Bush's emergency AIDS relief plan. The five-year, $15 billion plan is the largest international health initiative ever undertaken to battle a single disease.

A group of activists¹⁰ protesting U.S. AIDS policies chained themselves together in the lobby of the building housing America's U.N. mission, chanting "End AIDS now". Police said they used chain cutters to separate the demonstrators, and took 21 of them into custody¹¹.

1 rapes   

n.芸苔( rape的名词复数 )；强奸罪；强奸案；肆意损坏v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的第三人称单数 )；强奸

参考例句：

• The man who had committed several rapes was arrested. 那个犯了多起强奸案的男人被抓起来了。 来自辞典例句
• The incidence of reported rapes rose 0.8 percent. 美国联邦调查局还发布了两份特别报告。 来自互联网

2 inevitably   

adv.不可避免地；必然发生地

参考例句：

• In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去，毫无疑问是会散伙的。
• Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。

3 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

4 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

5 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

6 distressingly   

adv. 令人苦恼地；悲惨地

参考例句：

• He died distressingly by the sword. 他惨死于剑下。
• At the moment, the world's pandemic-alert system is distressingly secretive. 出于对全人类根本利益的考虑，印尼政府宣布将禽流感病毒的基因数据向所有人开放。

7 enact   

vt.制定(法律)；上演，扮演

参考例句：

• The U.S. Congress has exclusive authority to enact federal legislation.美国国会是唯一有权颁布联邦法律的。
• For example,a country can enact laws and economic policies to attract foreign investment fairly quickly.例如一个国家可以很快颁布吸引外资的法令和经济政策。

8 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

9 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

10 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。