Summary of REMARKS by Mary Ann Torres, ICASOs Executive Director

First and foremost, our thanks to the Ambassadors of Botswana and

Norway and to Michel Sidib and UNAIDS staff for organizing this event
and for the invitation to share with you some remarks about our
involvement in the Post 2015 MDG agenda.
I also want to acknowledge Dr. Edward Green, UN Secretary General
Special Envoy from HIV in the Caribbean, who is a good friend and ally.
I speak today on behalf of a civil society working group on the Post2015 MDG agenda, which is
a loose global coalition of AIDS advocates working to ensure that the Post2015 development
framework takes into consideration the lessons learned and the challenges of the last 15 years
and that ultimately ensures that health is central to it.

There is no doubt that significant progress has been made to address the AIDS epidemic
and we are now in front of an historic opportunity to end AIDS by taking forward the
vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths.
Science has put us in a place where we can see an end to AIDS. We know how to treat,
we know how to prevent, and we know how to provide care.
But science is not enough mobilization, inclusion and involvement of all stakeholders,
willingness to accept evidence over personal beliefs, strong political commitment and
support of governments.
But it is also true that AIDS is not over yet and that significant collective action is needed
to ensure that no one is left behind and that the AIDS response continues to build on
principles of social justice, equality and human rights. The unfinished business of the
MDGs and universal access need to be kept in our global advocacy agenda, particularly
on the need to reach the most marginalized and excluded people.
It is important to remember that the 2011 Political Declaration of Commitment (made 2
years ago) recognizes HIV as a global emergency requiring swift and decisive action. In
the 13 years since the MGDs, we've gone from virtually 0 on treatment to 8 million. The
progress, although tremendous, has to be weighed against the fact that there are still
millions of people living with HIV with no access to treatment and that people continue
to get HIV and die from HIV-related illnesses every day.
The Political Declaration was also instrumental in setting ambitious goals measured
through time-bound quantitative indicators of success and in calling for UNIVERSAL
ACCESS. It forced us to aim high and dream bigger than we could have ever imagined
possible only a decade earlier.

(Moving forward)

We are at a critical juncture in the epidemic where science and knowledge meet to
carve out a path to the end of AIDS within a generation. Ending AIDS needs to be our
collective ambition- our dream, as Michel just said - . Reducing is not good enough, not
ambitious enough. The goals and targets we set must chart a course to reach it.
Not only should the new targets and indicators be concrete, specific, measurable and
ambitious, they must take into account the breakthroughs that have been made in
recent years on effective delivery of prevention, treatment, care and support services
and address the social determinants of health including equity and human rights
The availability of data needs to become an integral part of promoting accountability in
the final years of the MDGs but particularly in the new development framework. The
question remains, however, Who counts?" (Who is counted?)
o Not only who does and does not matter (or who matters more or less) to policy
makers but whose data is considered worthy of consideration.
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o We absolutely need credible, up to date, specific and disaggregated data (by age,
population, gender)--particularly as it relates to key affected populations.
o Without this step, there is no way of knowing who to target and what measures
we should promote to ensure that HIV services are made available and are being
optimized. This will absolutely require governments and technical agencies to
work with and value the input and contributions of communities in the design of
data collection methodologies as well as their actual collection and analysis. For
this, it is important that we invest in communities, as they play such a crucial role
in the response and we ensure sustainability of the response, alongside health
systems strengthening

(A world without AIDS: what does it look like how do you get there).
Nothing is more crucial to ending AIDS than ensuring that human rights are promoted and
protected, irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, economic status. A key
strategy to reach REAL universal access and END AIDS within our generation is to focus on
ending criminalization and discriminatory laws which obstruct access to health and other
services for women and girls, adolescents and young people, people living with HIV, men who
have sex with men, transgender people, people who use drugs, sex workers and other
vulnerable and marginalized populations.
It is key that AIDS gets the prominence it needs in the new post 2015 development framework
in order not to lose what we have gained so far.
Thank you.