By IRNA,
Tehran : Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has helped officially open the Global Village at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.
The conference offers a space for communities living with and affected by HIV, policymakers, researchers and the general public to share information and ideas about the pandemic, a press release issued by the UN Information Center (UNIC) said here.
Ban joined the Executive Director of the Joint UN Program of HIV /AIDS (UNAIDS), Dr Peter Piot, Tuesday in opening the space.
The aim of the space is to enable greater civil society involvement and strengthen diverse communities’ involvement and participation in shaping the response to HIV, according to UNAIDS.
While at the Village, the Secretary-General and his wife, Ban Soon-taek, saw a performance by the “Dance for Life” group and heard from people who are infected with HIV in an interactive discussion.
He emphasized that the people he had met were at the heart of the AIDS response, and he told them, “I profoundly admire your courage and commitment.” He called for renewed leadership in eradicating stigma and discrimination associated with HIV.
Among his other activities, the Secretary-General met separately with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa. Speaking to reporters after his meeting with the president, Ban commended Mexico for providing regional leadership in the response to the AIDS pandemic, including the president’s call to combat all forms of HIV-related stigma and discrimination and for an end to homophobia.
He also welcomed the plan to remove certain restrictions on access to the local pharmaceutical market, so that laboratories from other countries will be able to introduce and sell medicines in Mexico, starting with antiretrovirals. “That will help achieve more competitive antiretroviral prices in Mexico,” Ban said, while also commending Mexico’s policy that all antiretroviral medications are to be offered to all those in need free of charge.
The two leaders also discussed Haiti, where recent unrest and political instability have shown the fragility of the stabilization process.