DRAFT RESOLUTION
Proposed by Brazilian Delegation to the Fifty-fourth World Health Assembly

HIV/AIDS

The Fifty-fourth World Health Assembly:

Considering that the AIDS epidemic has become one of the biggest threats to public health in the world, that this has reached pandemic levels, involving over 36 million people and that the poor and developing countries are the most seriously affected by it, as noted in Resolution 54/283 of the United Nations General Assembly;

Considering moreover that AIDS has caused: 1. The loss of countless human lives and countries'productive capacity; 2. Orphanhood (13 million orphans so far at least); 3. Lower life expectancy (up to 3 decades less); 4. Despair and unhappiness;

Considering that AIDS was judged by the UN Security Council in Resolution 1308 of 17 July 2000 as a question of national security;

Recalling that the 53rd World Health Assembly considered that prevention and health promotion activities are as important for confronting the epidemic as those focusing on care and treatment of people living with HIV and AIDS and;

Having moreover been considered by the Declaration of the Head of African States in Abuja, Nigeria, on 27 April 2001, which in its paragraph 29 calls upon the International Community to put into operation a Global Fund against AIDS with the aim of inter alia providing access to antiretroviral therapy for populations affected by the epidemic;

Considering that the Heads of State and Government of the Americas emphasized in paragraph 25 of the Declaration of the 3rd Summit of the Americas that good health and equality of access to medical care and to health systems, together with medical drugs at accessible prices are vital for human development and the implementation of new political, economic and social objectives;

Bearing in mind that new techniques, especially those related to new antiretroviral drugs, must be considered as a Human Rights issue and therefore should be available on an equitable basis for all countries and for the universe of people living with HIV and AIDS, as was agreed at the 57th World Human Rights Conference;

Considering that treatment of HIV/AIDS provides a positive incentive for individuals to submit to voluntary counseling and HIV testing, which in turn dramatically increases the efficacy of anti-HIV prevention and education efforts necessary to retard the advance of the pandemic.

Considering that HIV/AIDS affects women with special severity.

Considering that levels of international aid finance to support HIV/AIDS programs in poor countries has been greatly incommensurate with the prevalence of the pandemic, at approximately $5 annually per HIV-infected person in poor countries.

Emphasizing the key role that the WHO has performed at the world level, especially in developing countries and in those relatively lesser developed countries, to establish and implement policy initiatives centred on health promotion, on prevention of relevant diseases, on organization of services, on assembling and making available appropriate information to assist the formulation of health policies, technical and financial support for national health services, and on the development of ways and means of negotiating better prices for the procurement of medical drugs;

Reiterating at the same time the forthright performance of UNAIDS in combating the AIDS pandemic, through its support for National AIDS Programmes, including for the least developed countries, and in the organization of the Special Session of the UN General Assembly on HIV and AIDS, and especially in the drafting and dissemination of documents which have facilitated thoughtful appraisal of the most relevant issues concerning the pandemic;

Ratifying:

  1. The Declaration of the 3rd Summit of he Americas, which in its paragraph 25 states that good health and equality of access to medical care and to health systems, together with medical drugs at accessible prices, are vital for human development and for the implementation of new political, economic and social objectives;

  2. The Declaration of the Head of African States in Abuja, Nigeria on 27 April 2001, which in its paragraph 29 calls upon the International Community to put into operation a Global Fund against AIDS with the aim inter alia of providing access to antiretroviral therapy for peoples affected by the epidemic;

  3. The 57th World Human Rights Conference which declared that access to medical drugs and especially access to antiretroviral drugs was a question of Human Rights;

Calls Upon Member States to:

  1. Make every effort in order to guarantee that the access to antiretroviral and anti-opportunistic infection drugs should have as its point of reference the principle of equity, thus guaranteeing supply and prices compatible with the social and economic circumstances of individual countries as well as the degree of HIV prevalence in each country

  2. Make every effort to guarantee access of the population to currently available techniques in the areas of health promotion, of prevention of the main diseases and of care and treatment, with a view to reducing the negative impact of the HIV and AIDS epidemic around the world.

  3. Seek all available ways and means at both international and national levels to increase access by populations to antiretroviral and anti-opportunistic infection drugs;

  4. Establish health policies which promote access to drugs through:

    1. Policy initiatives which embrace the right to use technical and intellectual capacity for the in-country production of AIDS drugs, under the auspices of the agreements reached within the bounds of international law, such as the TRIPS agreement;
    2. Support for the establishment and financing of an International Fund for the promotion of access to antiretroviral and anti-opportunistic infection drugs, based upon the principle of equity;
    3. Implantation of a policy to facilitate the supply of drugs, including the production and distribution of generic drugs and the negotiation of prices with pharmaceutical drugs companies, in accordance with the social and economic development profiles of each country.

  5. Guarantee participation by people living with HIV and AIDS in the formulation of national policies as regards access to drugs.

  6. Promote social control at the national level so as to guarantee better quality control over antiretroviral drugs.

  7. Provide international aid finance against HIV/AIDS as grants, not loans, to the least developed countries.
Requests the Director General to:

  1. Support, and participate in, the creation of an international Fund to guarantee access to antiretroviral and anti-opportunistic infection drugs, particularly for poor and developing countries, based on the principle of equity. That this Fund should make drugs available at different prices in line with Social Development Indices and according to the prevalence of HIV in different countries, so that a policy based upon the principle of equity can be attained.

  2. Establish an expert committee under WHO auspices, consisting of an expanded membership of physicians, scientists, public health practitioners, and non-governmental AIDS advocates (including people with AIDS), drawn from both developed and developing Member States, to review and assess on a case-by-case basis the scientific, medical and operational feasibility of proposals submitted by developing country Member States for funding payable out of the International Fund.

  3. Oppose any international proposals which would provide funding out of the International Fund on the basis of interest-bearing loans, rather than outright grants, to least developed Member States or other Member States needing significant financial assistance because of he scale of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in relation to their domestic wealth.

  4. Create a Drugs Prices Data Bank, containing information about drugs procurement and manufacturers, with a view to providing data for the management of national policies in respect of access to antiretroviral drugs and anti-opportunistic infection drugs.

  5. Create parameters jointly with the Member States and the drugs industry, including producers of generic drugs, in order to establish a worldwide policy of differentiated prices for drugs according to social, economic, and epidemiological indicators, with the principle of equity as a basic reference point.

  6. Create ways and means to permit better monitoring and quality control of antiretroviral drugs.

  7. Foster inter-country exchanges and international technical and legal cooperation, with a view to establishing a global policy for the production of generic drugs, as well as to implement care, treatment and prevention policies in respect of AIDS, implying the strengthening of links between public authorities and civil society.

  8. Regard the access to antiretroviral drugs and those for treating opportunistic infections a matter of the highest priority, and to develop policies for:

    1. Reducing the suffering of men, women and children living with HIV and AIDS throughout the world;
    2. Reducing mortality caused by AIDS, especially in the socially and economically less developed countries;
    3. Increasing life expectancy particularly in those countries where it has been falling as the result of AIDS;
    4. Helping to restore the process of social development in poor countries by means of maintenance of productive capacity and the labor force.

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