The group ActionAid International is criticizing the declaration coming from the UN AIDS conference taking place in New York City.

ActionAid International states that “the declaration does not commit governments to urgently fill the $10 billion funding gap … every year to finance the scaling up towards the goal of universal access.”

Among those AIDS activists available for interviews:

LEONARD OKELLO
ADITI SHARMA
Okello is head of the HIV/AIDS program for ActionAid Africa.

Based in India, Sharma is HIV/AIDS Campaign and Policy Coordinator for ActionAid International. She said today: “We are furious. Vulnerable groups such as intravenous drug users, sex workers and men who have sex with men have been made invisible in this document. In addition, commitment to women’s rights has become a subject of controversy, rather than being recognized as a critical component of a pandemic that is increasingly becoming a women’s issue.

Sharma added: “Today, 40 million HIV positive people have been let down by our governments and the international community. It is incomprehensible how negotiators could come up with such a weak declaration…”
More Information

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167