Antonio Maria Costa
Executive Director
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
Moscow
31 March 2005
Good afternoon. It is a pleasure to be here with so many old and new friends. ��First, I want to thank our Russian hosts, in particular, Sergei Viktorovich Lavrov, Foreign Minister, whom I met yesterday, and whose kind� cooperation I always appreciate.
Also with us today are Mr. Zurabov Mikhail Yurievich, Minister of Health and Social Development; Mr. Victor Vasilyevich Cherkesov, Director of the Federal Drug Control Service; Dr. Starodubov Vladimir Ivanovich, Deputy Minister of Health and Social Development, and Dr. Onischenko Gennady Grigorievich, Head of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumers Rights and Human Well-being. It�s a pleasure to be back in Moscow.�
I also want to thank Mr. Vladimir Rushailo, Executive Secretary of the CIS Executive Committee; the UN system delegations from the CCO, and of course, my friend, Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS for all you have done to make this event a success. I would also like to welcome the First Lady of Georgia, Sandra Roelofs, who is a stalwart advocate for vulnerable populations around the world.�
The presence today of so many ministers and representatives from the Commonwealth of Independent States tells me that this is the right meeting, at the right time, in the right place, for the right reason.
Your participation is proof that the Commonwealth of Independent States understands the scope and complexity of the current HIV/AIDS epidemic. It is testimony to your commitment to combating the spread of this disease.���
Our purpose today is ambitious.� We want to give you the information, the tools, the policy, and the encouragement you need to address the AIDS disease.� We want to describe the HIV threat head-on, and to talk about how this deadly illness is transmitted.� We want to identify the carriers, discuss the obstacles to interventions, and talk about ways to protect young people. In particular, we want to talk about the need for political commitment, and for creating the legislative infrastructure and health systems governments need to address this crisis in comprehensive ways.��
HIV/AIDS is not an attractive subject: it is impossible to confront the issue without triggering cultural sensitivities.� In some cases, the instinct is to turn the other way, and hope the problem will just go away.
But HIV/AIDS is not going away.
HIV/AIDS is spreading rapidly, across the CIS countries, through populations we know are vulnerable � as well as through demographic groups that we once believed were not at risk.� Indeed, we used to think that HIV/AIDS only went after �people who asked for it,� victims for whom we do not always have a great deal of sympathy: drug abusers, sex workers, and prison inmates who are HIV-positive or infected by AIDS.
� Today, we know better. We understand that HIV also targets partners or spouses of individuals who are HIV-positive; children, whose only mistake was to be born to HIV-positive mothers, and young people�what amounts, in fact, to an entire generation. Consider this statistic: 8 out of 10 persons infected by HIV in Eastern Europe and the CIS countries are under the age of 30.[1]
Of course, ordinary, well-behaved people � and politicians � do not like to talk about citizens who live on the margin of society: drug abusers, prostitutes, or inmates.� Yet, I insist we do have to talk about them. We must be concerned. The circumstances of their lives may be unsavoury, but we cannot afford to be disengaged:
We have a moral responsibility. These are our fellow citizens, whatever their profession, whatever their life style. We also have a practical obligation to reach out to everyone living with HIV or with AIDS. They are vehicles for a disease that does not discriminate. The movement of the virus from the most vulnerable groups into the population-at-large represents one of the most sinister and challenging aspects of the disease.
What�s the answer? Across the world, experience has demonstrated that isolated campaigns are not enough. The only thing that can stop this pandemic is the immediate implementation of comprehensive programs that attack the disease on every front and in every theatre.
Such large-scale responses require political will.� And all of you have demonstrated enormous political courage in the past decade and a half.� Countries in Eastern Europe and in Central Asia have faced major adjustments, during a difficult and painful transition process that, in the end, has proven successful, peaceful, and far-reaching.� During this period, major institutional and political changes have materialized, involving a quarter billion people.�
The whole world remains fascinated by both the speed of these changes and their peaceful implementation. Given the fact that your countries have been so successful in political and economic areas, it is hardly conceivable that you would not pursue the same kind of successful solutions for your less fortunate brothers, those affected by HIV/AIDS.� I call on you to respond to this crisis with leadership, involvement, and commitment.
Indeed, a global campaign to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS requires champions � and this is why we invited all of you to join us in Moscow.� And if we do not leave this meeting better-equipped, and better-prepared to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS, it will not be because the opportunity was not there, but because we did not seize it.
We cannot mount a comprehensive campaign against HIV/AIDS without diversifying� and expanding treatment, without integrating the efforts of service and health providers across the public sector, and at every level of the government, from top to bottom.�
Awareness-raising, capacity-building, and expanded outreach are all critical prerequisites to success. Better access to antiretroviral treatment at an affordable price, as well the effective management of tuberculosis, sexually-transmitted diseases, and hepatitis B and C, are indispensable parts of this larger package.
Of course, as I suggested earlier, none of these improvements can happen without the right legislation�laws and standards that allow us to confront this threat head-on. Collaboration between government agencies, including law enforcement, and the civil sector remains key to our winning this fight.
So all of you have a big job in front of you, maybe the biggest challenge of your lives. Our hope is to equip you during this meeting, not only with the practical tools you need to combat HIV/AIDS, but also with the resolve and determination to put them to use.
Thank you, and again, welcome.