Statement of UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem for World AIDS Day 2017

One new HIV infection is one too many – and in 2016 there were 1.8 million.

In adopting the Sustainable Development Goals, the international community committed to ending AIDS by 2030. This will only be achieved by ensuring everyone’s right to health. This right is jeopardized when people face stigma and discrimination, and when they lack information, services and agency. Stigma and discrimination, which remain concretely present in communities all over the world, play a particularly incendiary role in continuing HIV transmission.

When adolescent girls lack bodily autonomy; when they cannot prevent being married off as a child or protect themselves from HIV, other sexually transmitted infections or unintended pregnancies, they are denied their right to health. As a result, we see alarming and unacceptable rates of new HIV infections among adolescent girls and young women, particularly in Africa. When young people face judgmental health-care providers and other cultural barriers that effectively block their access to information and services, they are not realizing their right to health. When unjust laws and policies prevent key populations from getting services, or when there is vilification of men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people and people who use drugs, the right to health is obstructed and HIV prevails.

Often for the most marginalized and alienated in society, remaining hidden for personal safety or because of anticipated disapproval is perceived as the best way to live a life free from violence. However, this often means they are deprived of life-saving prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, has joined UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, to spearhead the Global HIV Prevention Coalition, working with governments, communities and partners to scale up prevention efforts in the most-affected countries and populations. We are working together to empower and protect our youth with knowledge through education. We are supporting and embracing vulnerable communities and key populations to enable them to access rights-based services and fulfill their potential.

UNFPA calls on governments and communities to take the necessary steps to end stigma and discrimination as a cornerstone for ensuring the right to health for everyone. We must continue to promote inclusivity and tolerance so that, together, we can end AIDS by 2030.