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CNN Sunday Morning
UN Special Session to Address Growing AIDS Epidemic
Aired June 24, 2001 - 09:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The growing AIDS epidemic has the attention of the UN General Assembly. It convenes a special session tomorrow to tackle the global epidemic at the highest level. More than 3,000 world and business leaders are expected to participate in the three-day conference in New York. Delegates will evaluate past actions and seeks new steps to fight the killer disease. Hundreds of AIDS activists marched in New York ahead of the UN session.
CNN's Brian Palmer reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The weather didn't cooperate, but demonstrators didn't care.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're not losing just a village. We're not losing just a town, a city or a country. We're losing an entire continent. Entire populations are disappearing from this planet.
PALMER: Between 1,000 and 2,000 AIDS activists from around the world converged on New York City to pressure world governments to do more to fight the disease.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It all boils down to four simple things: dollars, debt cancellation, treatment and saving lives.
PALMER: Just days before the United Nations holds its first special session devoted to the AIDS pandemic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the rich countries don't provide the financing necessary and cancel the debt of poor countries, then in essence, they are writing death sentences for some 35 million people living with HIV.
PALMER: Many of these activists say they have been largely excluded from the official gathering, but they say they will be heard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coming from the township, I believe I have the right to ask my president or whichever president: what are you doing about AIDS? And it's quite clear that all the presidents are confused.
PALMER: More than 20 million people have died of AIDS since the 1980s, and roughly 36 million people around the world have the virus that causes AIDS. Countries in Africa are the hardest hit.
Activists say this should concern people in every country.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we need to let people know that sick people around the world do affect all of us. Economies will be destroyed. This disease is killing the most productive young population. It is robbing the world of a great deal of its wealth of human beings.
PALMER: United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is urging member countries to contribute to a fund that would amass between $7 billion an $10 billion to stop the disease.
But in an organization that has had difficulty getting some members to pay their annual dues, this may not be an easy task.
Brian Palmer, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: The effect of AIDS on developing countries are truly staggering. Half of all 15-year-olds in the nation of sub-Saharan Africa will die of the disease. Imagine every other 10th grader in America dying of a disease that has no cure.
The UN this week launches an unprecedented special session to intensify action on the global AIDS crisis.
Joining us now from New York, Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund. Good morning, great to see you, Thoraya.
THORAYA OBAID, UN POPULATIONS FUND: Good morning. I'm happy to be with you.
PHILLIPS: It's a pleasure. Why don't we begin by talking about what can the United Nations hope to achieve in general with this session.
OBAID: This important session has many purposes. I think the most important one is to alert the world that the crisis is a global crisis and it's a threat to national and human security as well. It's also a session and a meeting that will break the silence and the stigma about HIV/AIDS and showing that all governments are coming together committing themselves to work together to fight the epidemic and most importantly to provide resources and funds that are required for prevention, care and treatment. This is really the most important elements of this very important meeting.
PHILLIPS: OK, you mentioned the human and the national issues here. I have a bit of a financial question for you and it may seem a bit cynical but I want to know what you think about this. So many people are dying of AIDS. There are many companies that are based in Africa. Does this mean that if their -- if companies do not recognize this threat that this may effect the bottom lines of these companies and there could be a financial fallout? OBAID: Well, with a disease like that fighting it is a modern responsibility of all concerned whether it is the government or the private sector. And I believe that companies do have a social responsibility to deal with this issue. And part of the social responsibility is to provide cheap medications and care for the patients. And I believe this is what the Secretary General was trying to do when building and emphasizing the contract between the present countries and the United Nations to show that they are socially responsible.
PHILLIPS: And we are seeing advocates. They're winning the battle of cheap AIDS drugs. We're already seeing that happen. What else needs to happen?
OBAID: There's a great deal of research required to find vaccines and other treatments. And research , as you know, requires a great deal of funding and support. And it's very important that we see that.
PHILLIPS: Now you have a particular focus on how AIDS is effecting women. Will you talk a little bit about that?
OBAID: Well, we are already talking about the feminization of the disease in the sense that for every man, in some African countries, five to eight girls are infected between the age of 16 and 19. And that's a very, very serious ratio. Of course, part of this is because there are cultural taboos that are related to women. Women are not encouraged to know the biology, to discuss the relationship between men and women. They are poor, illiterate -- have no access to health care at all -- even the very simple primary health care. And all of these contribute together to the fact that they are victimized to this disease.
And that requires, of course, that men -- and we do call on men -- to change the way they perceive women and establish a more positive relationship between men and women so that women wouldn't be exploited in this manner.
PHILLIPS: So you're talking about sexual independence as being a very important solution here?
OBAID: Well, what we call it in the United Nations, yes. It's gender equality and equity in the sense that men and women perceive each other positively within the realms of their society and they respect each other. And they change their behavior so that they can be more positive towards each other. And this is more particularly for men.
PHILLIPS: Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund. Always a pleasure to speak with you. Thank you so much.
OBAID: Thank you very much.
PHILLIPS: All right.
OBAID: It's a pleasure to be with you.
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