By Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General, Caribbean Community
Greater Georgetown, Guyana – Today, we in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) join with the rest of the world to mark the occasion of the 21st World AIDS Day.
This year’s theme Human Rights and Universal Access, could not be more timely as we take stock of the progress we have made as a Community in accelerating our response to HIV and AIDS, and contemplate the challenges ahead in reversing the spread of the epidemic.
Even as we consider the merit of a Caribbean Public Health Agency approved by our Heads of Government, and the prospects of shared or pooled public health services, we must give due recognition to the implications of the current world economic crises on our economies and the likely effects on public health services.
In these circumstances the fight against HIV and AIDS calls for strengthening the Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP) and consolidating the integral linkages between the Caribbean Regional Strategic Framework that guides the activities of PANCAP and the various national HIV and AIDS programmes. These circumstances also demand continued support from our developing partners.
Assessments of the Region’s response to the disease indicate a mixed score card. The 2009 HIV and AIDS update by UNAIDS and WHO shows, among other things, that between 2001 and 2008, there has been a 9 per cent increase in the rate of HIV infections in the Caribbean. It shows also that the rate of infection is increasing among women and that other at-risk groups continue to be men who have sex with men and commercial sex workers.
The call for more research into the role of bi-sexuality in the transmission of HIV and the reduction of stigma and discrimination cannot be overemphasized. It is for this reason that the recent establishment of the PANCAP Stigma and Discrimination Unit, as part of the regional response to research and policy, is an important first step that must be complemented by the work of our universities and other policy centres.
The establishment and sustainability of PANCAP attests to the continued political leadership in the Caribbean in responding to this epidemic. But there is much more to be done. In this regard, CARICOM and its Secretariat continue to support institutional strengthening and to emphasise the fundamental rights of persons with HIV and AIDS.
In acknowledging that the response to the epidemic must be a multi-sectoral one, the Secretariat will continue to mainstream HIV and AIDS in its work programmes of health, education, youth and culture and advocate for behavior change. We call for strengthening the role of the community of persons with HIV and AIDS in the decision making process and for placing even more emphasis on the role of strategic information and communication in the overall objective to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS.
We in the Caribbean join forces with the rest of the world today and commit to placing human rights and universal access to prevention, care and treatment at the centre of the response against HIV and AIDS.
Edwin Carrington
Secretary-General, Caribbean Community
