A Parliamentary Caucus took place on 1 June to review parliamentary action against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, against the backdrop of the High-level meeting of the United Nations on HIV/AIDS earlier this month in New York. The meeting, a joint initiative of IPU, UNAIDS, and UNDP, was attended by some 60 MPs from 30 countries, many of whom were chairs or members of specialised parliamentary committees.
With the help of two presenters, Dr. Ewa Björling (MP, Sweden) and Dr. José Pinotti (MP, Brazil), the discussion focussed on making laws on HIV/AIDS enforceable and on building partnerships between parliaments and civil society. One point that was made clear during the discussion was that parliamentarians need to become more aware of HIV/AIDS and of the international commitments taken by their respective governments. They also need to become more open to the input of civil society organizations that work directly with people affected.
One parliamentary model that was highlighted comes from the UK, where an all party group on HIV/AIDS has been set up to overcome political differences across party lines and build the political will to push the agenda forward. At least two other parliaments, those of Russia and of the Netherlands, may soon follow their lead.
The decision was also taken for the IPU to set up an advisory group that would take a more systematic approach to the parliamentary response against HIV/AIDS. Its implicit message, as Senator Mensah-Williams of Namibia (Vice President of the IPU Executive Committee) said in her speech to the UN High-level Meeting, is that a more “sustained and direct involvement of parliaments will be required if we are to meet the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS”. The group will be small in size, with an eye to regional and gender balance, and will serve to help the IPU mainstream the most effective legislative approaches against the pandemic throughout its 146 member parliaments. A first meeting of the group is scheduled to take place at IPU Headquarters in Geneva later this year.
The parliamentary meeting could not have come at a more opportune time. In fact, the Political Declaration that member states adopted at the end of their high-level meeting referred explicitly, and for the first time in such a declaration, to the need for national parliaments to work together with governments, civil society organizations, the pharmaceutical industry and many other stakeholders to help mount a decisive effort towards goals such as achieving universal access to prevention, treatment and care by 2010.
