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Message
for World AIDS Day 2000 from Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the UN.
The
turn of the millennium has provided us with an occasion for profound
reflection about the type of world we want to live in, and the kind of
legacy we want to leave for future generations. There is no more important
issue for us to consider than AIDS. Will we burden our children and our
children's children with a global HIV/AIDS pandemic? Or can we take
decisive action now to turn back the progress of this disease?
In some parts of the world, the past year has seen evidence of an
explosive spread of HIV/AIDS. In others, there are signs that the epidemic
has stabilized -- but often only after an unacceptably high proportion of
the population had become infected. Many
nations have demonstrated that it is possible to hold the spread in check.
But even in the richest countries, even among those that have achieved the
greatest success against the epidemic, this requires a constant renewal of
the struggle.
The actions of every one of us can make a difference. This year, I would
like to highlight the role of men, who can make a particular difference:
by being more caring, by taking fewer risks, and by facing the issue of
AIDS head-on. Until and unless we grasp that AIDS is our problem, we will be blind to the steps we need to take to
protect ourselves and others against it. We will be powerless to reduce
its impact. This applies as much to a leader planning the allocation of
national resources, as it does to a husband planning his future with his
wife or a father planning for the future of his child.
From the world stage to the most intimate moments, AIDS requires us to
open our eyes and not dismiss it as "someone else's issue". It
requires us to open our minds to community solutions that work in the
struggle against AIDS. It requires us to open our arms to people living
with HIV/AIDS and give them our solidarity and support.
At the Millennium Summit three months ago, the world's leaders resolved
that by 2015, we will have halted and begun to reverse the spread of
HIV/AIDS. Next June, we
will have an unprecedented opportunity to follow up on that resolve. The
General Assembly will convene a Special Session to review all aspects of
the AIDS problem and to secure a coordinated global commitment in the
struggle against it. It will provide us with an occasion as never before
to face up to our responsibility to future generations, and take decisive
action now to turn back the progress of this terrible disease.
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