On this International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia (IDAHOT), the NGO Delegation to the UNAIDS PCB celebrates the sexual and gender diversities of our communities. It commemorates those who have suffered or lost their lives due to violence against sexual and gender minorities.

The NGO Delegation congratulates Erika Castellanos and the Board of Directors of GATE on Ms. Castellanos’ recent appointment as director of programs.  Founded in 2009, the Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE) is an organization that promotes and supports transgender and intersex rights. 

We join the global community in congratulating Laurel D. Sprague, Ph.D., on her recent appointment as the incoming executive director of  GNP+. Dr. Sprague, who served as the North American NGO delegate from the United States from 2014 to 2016, will now move to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to oversee the largest global network of people living with HIV as the international community seeks to end HIV/AIDS by 2030.

To ensure the meaningful involvement of key populations and make their voices count in the development of the updated UNAIDS Strategy 2016-2021, UNAIDS conducted a series of consultations coinciding with the Asia-Pacific Intergovernmental Meeting on HIV/AIDS (IGM on HIV) in the last week of January 2015.

Patents became part of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement first in 1995 – called the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. Developed countries had one year to ensure their patent laws were consistent with TRIPS.

Serious concerns have been raised relative to the stakeholders’ meeting that was held on 14-15 January 2014 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) capital Kinshasa. The meeting was the final country dialogue to validate the content and priorities of the country’s HIV concept note under the Global Fund’s new funding model (NFM).

The most recent face-to-face meeting on the Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) on addressing HIV in Humanitarian Emergencies began with the acknowledgement of a major challenge. Both the global development and HIV agendas are undergoing speedy changes at the very same time.

For the NGO report of 2014, the NGO Delegation has chosen the topic of how intellectual property (IP) regulations impact the access to HIV treatment and what role civil society plays in addressing IP barriers to essential treatment.

We expressed concern and condemnation for the recent Nigerian Same Sex [Prohibition] Act 2014. The Delegation urged the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) along with its Cosponsors – UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO, and the World Bank – as well as Member States and multilateral and bilateral donors, to take meaningful action.

Substantial change is potentially underway, measuring the overall performance of the UNAIDS Programme as well as the Programme’s performance in relation to Civil Society. UNAIDS is gearing up for its Mid-Term Review at the June 2014 PCB Meeting. As part of that process, the Secretariat hosted a technical consultation on programmatic and financial accountability onContinue reading “UBRAF consultations”