Closing remarks by H.E. Mr. Mogens Lykketoft,President of the 70th session of the General Assembly, on 2016 High-level Meeting on Ending AIDS
10 June 2016, New York
Heads of State and Government, Honourable Ministers, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
We have come to the end of three truly engaging days of discussion and I would like to thank the Co-chairs of the interactive panels for providing such through and concise summaries of the discussions.
Overall, we have heard about the great progress that has been made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, thanks to the concerted efforts of governments, business, international partners, young people, women’s groups, activists and every-day citizens living with HIV.
We have heard about the pain, suffering and exclusion that millions of people living with HIV and their families experience and that millions more are likely to experience because of this disease and because of our inadequate response to it.
But we also heard – again and again – how together, we have the power, the resources, the knowledge and the technology to change this reality, to fast-track our HIV/AIDS response, and to make ending Aids one of the first and one of many amazing successes of the SDG era.
The question now however, is do we have the will and the humanity to make this happen?
The strong statements of intent that we heard from many member states these past few days suggests that we do, as indeed does the forward-looking Political Declaration unanimously adopted on Wednesday.
I commend all delegations for their understanding in reaching consensus and their persistence in raising the bar.
I would also like to reiterate my sincere thanks to the Co-facilitators of those successful negotiations, to Her Excellency Dr. Patricia Kasese-Bota, Permanent Representative of Zambia, to His Excellency Mr. Jurg Lauber, Permanent Representative of Switzerland, and to their teams.
Lastly, I wish to thank again the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and everyone at the UN who played an important role in making this meeting a success.
Excellencies, this epidemic has haunted the lives of millions of people and denied them their human dignity for far too long.
Let us therefore make one final commitment.
Let us not return here in five years’ time unless we can honestly say that we have fast tracked the global response to HIV/AIDS.
That we are well on our way to ending AIDS once and for all.
Thank you.