Sign-on letter: make AIDS a focus of the G8 summit
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Sorry for cross posting!

Dear Colleague,

First, the essential information:

Please add your organization's name to this letter asking G8 leaders
to put HIV/AIDS at the core of their 2003 summit. Please share this
e-mail with colleagues.

To add your organization's name, simply send it as an e-mail to:
mailto:[email protected]

Please also indicate your organization's country.

The full text of the letter is available below and on-line at
http://www.iapac.org

Now the details:

With US legislation to increase funding in the global struggle
against HIV/AIDS now making its way through Congress, and with the
2003 Summit of G8 leaders just around the corner, the international
community is presented with a critical opportunity to demonstrate its
collective support for increased attention on the part of the world's
wealthiest nations to HIV/AIDS and the poverty and inequity which
typically engender it. In advance of this year's G8 Summit in Evian,
France, from June 1-3, the International Association of Physicians in
AIDS Care is coordinating a sign-on letter advocating for HIV/AIDS
and international development to be placed at the fore of discussion.
The letter, including names of organizations and institutions which
sign on, will be sent to the following heads of state on May 19,
2003, in advance of country delegations' departure for the summit:

Prime Minister Jean Chrétien (Canada); President Jacques Chirac
(French Republic); Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (Federal Republic of
Germany); Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (Republic of Italy); Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi (Japan); President Vladimir Vladmirovich
Putin (Russian Federation); Prime Minister Tony Blair (United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland); President George W. Bush
(United States of America); and President Romano Prodi (European Un-
ion).

Provided for you below is the letter, as it will be presented to Ca-
nadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. Each version, of course, will be
personalized and conveyed to individual Heads of State. The key mes-
sage is that increased attention must be paid to HIV disease in re-
source-limited countries, but that this must be done within a broader
agenda of international development including debt relief, increased
development aid, and revised trade and finance regulations. With re-
gard to this broad program of development assistance, G8 leaders are
being urged to consider recommendations such as DATA's "The Debt
Deal: An Emergency G7 Package for Africa," and Africa Action's "Af-
rica's Right to Health" campaign as frameworks within which HIV/AIDS
relief must be considered, not only in Africa but in other resource-
limited settings. These sources of information may be found, respec-
tively, at:
http://www.datadata.org/press_policypapers.htm
and
http://www.africaaction.org/action/campaign.htm

If your organization or institution wishes to sign on to this impor-
tant letter to end the preventable suffering and debilitation caused
by HIV/AIDS and the various political, economic, and social forces
that drive the global pandemic, please indicate your support by pro-
viding your organization's name at [email protected].

If you have questions or concerns about this sign-on letter please
direct them to:

Scott A. Wolfe
Director of Global Health Policy for the International Association of
Physicians in AIDS Care
Tel.: +1-312-795-4956
mailto:[email protected]

Thank you in advance for joining forces in this continued struggle.

--
AIDS and International Development Must be Placed at the Core of 2003
G8 Summit Discussion

Dear Prime Minister Chrétien,

By latest United Nations estimates, HIV/AIDS will have killed 46 mil-
lion people before the end of this decade (278 million by 2050). The
terrifying death toll taken by the global pandemic, with over 95 per-
cent of its casualties presented in the world's poorest countries,
calls into question the very meaning of human development and civili-
zation. That we have harnessed the marvels of modern science, set
foot into the cosmos, and designed treatments or cures for serious
afflictions, enabling us to preserve and enhance human life, yet at
the same time are variably unable or unwilling to put this knowledge
and passion in service of those in greatest need worldwide, points to
our greatest collective failure.

As representatives of the world's wealthiest and most powerful na-
tions, you and your peers at the helm of the G8, along with your min-
isterial representatives, are graced with the authority and opportu-
nity to effect the macro-economic and political change necessary to
put an end to these dichotomies. You hold the power to affect proc-
esses of trade, finance, and social policy in ways that hold the po-
tential to better reflect our shared humanity.

Again, from June 1-3, 2003, at the annual summit of G8 leaders in
Evian, France, you are presented with an unparalleled opportunity to
demonstrate Canada's commitment to fostering development, reciproc-
ity, and peace throughout the world. In regard to the global devasta-
tion currently being wrought by HIV/AIDS, particularly on the African
continent, you are endowed with unmatched power to create positive
change by placing front and center discussion around the requirements
to end preventable death and suffering that result from this disease
and the poverty, financial debilitation, and social unrest that en-
gender it. The world will be observing in order to determine whether
you embrace this urgent challenge or turn away from this greatest of
responsibilities.

In view of the unique opportunity for dialogue and negotiation af-
forded by the 2003 G8 Summit, we the undersigned call on you to place
concerns for prevention, care, and treatment of HIV/AIDS at the fore
of your discussions surrounding sustainable international develop-
ment.

In particular, we urge you to come to consensus with your peers on
the need to guarantee adequate support for mechanisms such as the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria that can enable
governments and public healthcare officials dedicated to turning the
tide of the global pandemic to effectively do so. We urge you to sup-
port the myriad clinicians, public health experts, and AIDS Service
Organizations within your borders who are conducting HIV prevention
and care both domestically and internationally, heeding their experi-
ence and recommendations in determining domestic and foreign policy
related to HIV/AIDS. And, we urge you to cast your eyes toward the
hundreds of millions of individuals worldwide who both individually
and as communities will remain overwhelmed by disease, poverty, and
social debilitation unless your compassion and commitment to stemming
HIV/AIDS is considered within a broader development assistance pro-
gram such as that conveyed to you in April 2003 by the organization
DATA in a series of recommendations entitled the DATA Deal: An Emer-
gency G7 Package for Africa. This document, attached again for you
here, presents solid and comprehensive recommendations around debt
relief, support for disease control and prevention, and trade regula-
tion that are critical in effectively fighting HIV/AIDS not only in
Africa, but in all resource-limited settings.

We would add to it that the recommendation of a debt for healthcare
spending swap advocated by DATA in the case of Nigeria be examined by
G8 countries as a general strategy for addressing HIV/AIDS in re-
source-limited countries. Further reference may be made to guiding
sources such as the Africa's Right to Health Campaign led by Africa
Action, in your future effort to craft HIV/AIDS relief plans that in-
corporate disease prevention and control into broad development as-
sistance programs.

As G8 leaders meet early next month, the discussion undertaken and
agreements that are reached will be recorded as either a sign of true
commitment to ending the suffering and devastation that are currently
the lot of much of this world's population, or a clear sign of apathy
and disconcern. May your participation and voice tip the scales to-
ward the former.

Respectfully and in solidarity to stop HIV/AIDS,

Organizations