UN: Diplomats at the United Nations were struggling last night to agree a declaration of commitment to fighting Aids, amid strong resistance from the United States and some Arab countries to mentioning specific vulnerable groups and spelling out global targets.
Aids activists warned that today's declaration, which comes at the end of a special session of the UN General Assembly devoted to the pandemic, could be weaker than a statement agreed in 2001.
The 2001 declaration set out clear targets, including specifying how much money should be spent on Aids in poor countries in 2005, the percentage of pregnant women who should get drugs that prevent transmission of HIV to infants, and the percentage of people with advanced infection who should be on antiretroviral drugs.
Civil society groups want today's declaration to set a target of providing drugs by 2010 to 80 per cent of people whose infection is advanced enough to require treatment, and 80 per cent of infected pregnant women, as well as to everyone with both tuberculosis and Aids.
A group of Islamic countries wants to remove from the draft declaration the term "vulnerable groups", used in 2001 to avoid mentioning high-risk groups including homosexuals, prostitutes and intravenous drug users - people whose behaviour the Islamic countries do not want acknowledged.
The Taoiseach said the declaration should reflect the reality of the Aids pandemic and the measures needed to combat it rather than paying lip-service to any particular ethos. "This is a public health issue and we should all be looking at trying to address what is important to address and that's trying to save people's lives, to stop people getting Aids and to deal with the children," he said.
The Government last year increased spending on international aid projects to combat HIV/Aids, malaria, tuberculosis and other preventable diseases to €100 million a year. Ireland also supports specific HIV/Aids programmes implemented through UN agencies and has given €40 million to the Global Fund for HIV/Aids, TB and Malaria (GFATM) since it was established in 2001.
Irish Aid focuses most of its anti-poverty efforts on seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa - Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho and South Africa - all of which have serious HIV epidemics.
Former president Mary Robinson told The Irish Times the presence of the Taoiseach and Development Minister Conor Lenihan at this week's meeting had been appreciated by countries struggling with the Aids pandemic.
"It has resonated and it speaks to the fact that Ireland has been very focused in our development programme on the various ways to address Aids I hope there'll be a strong Irish voice in trying to make the final declaration as forward-looking as possible because it needs both those from the heart of the pandemic and those leaders who understand, because they've worked with it, how critical this is after 25 years," she said.
Ms Robinson criticised those countries pressing to water down the UN declaration, arguing that a strong declaration could give the fight against Aids an important boost.
"The US in particular still has this link with a constituency of right-wing, faith-based groups and they don't know the situation on the ground. At least, I hope they don't. Because if they know it and they continue this policy, they're even more to be really damned and criticised for it. Because this is about saving lives."