In conjunction with the 2008 High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on AIDS starting tomorrow at the UN Headquarters in New York, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is today holding a parliamentary briefing to help highlight some of the critical issues being discussed at the United Nations and to serve as a parliamentary forum for a debate on major issues such as stigma and discrimination, including travel restrictions against people living with HIV/AIDS.
The briefing will be opened by the IPU Secretary General, Mr. Anders B. Johnsson, and moderated by Ms. Kay Hull, a parliamentarian from Australia. The other panellists are the Deputy Executive Director, Management and External Relations at the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Deborah Landey, the Director of HIV/AIDS Practice at UNDP, Jeffrey O'Malley; United States Congressman Jim McDermott; South African MP Hendrietta Bogopane; Belgian Senator Marleen Temmerman, and Indian legislator Jesudas Seelam.
The briefing, organized in cooperation with UNDP and UNAIDS, will take place in the United Nations ECOSOC Chamber. It will provide legislators with up-to-date information on the issues to be discussed at the UN event and it will also give members of parliament the opportunity to discuss follow-up of the conclusions of the First Global Parliamentary Meeting on HIV/AIDS held in Manila last November.
The parliamentary briefing builds on a General Assembly resolution which expressly encourages UN Member States to include parliamentarians in their national delegations to the high-level meeting and provides another building block in the work of the IPU Advisory Group on HIV/AIDS
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