UNITED NATIONS, June 2, 2006 (AFP) - Negotiators at a high-level UN meeting on AIDS agreed Friday on the draft of a hotly debated political declaration that will serve as a blueprint for the global struggle against the pandemic.
The final draft, thrashed out during discussions that wound up at 3:30 am (0730 GMT), was immediately condemned as blinkered and ineffective by some of the non-governmental HIV/AIDS action groups attending the three-day conference in New York.
The declaration, aimed at setting a course towards the goal of universal access to AIDS prevention, treatment and care by 2010, was scheduled to be adopted by the United Nations General Assembly later in the day.
UN officials close to the negotiations noted that the final document contained stronger language on the importance of empowering women and girls, as well as detailed language on prevention, including specific references to male and female condom use.
Such references had been opposed by certain Muslim and conservative Latin American countries.
General Assembly president Jan Eliasson recommended the draft to member nations as "a good, substantial and forward-looking document."
But the draft notably stopped short of listing those most at risk to HIV infection, such as sex workers, intravenous drug users and homosexuals, and opted instead for the euphemistic term "vulnerable groups."
While it "recognised" the UN estimate that 20-23 billion dollars in annual funding would be needed to support scaled-up AIDS responses by 2010, it released developed nations from any firm timetable commitments to achieving that goal.
"We are furious," said Aditi Sharma, HIV/AIDS campaign and policy coordinator for ActionAid International.
"It is incomprehensible how negotiators could come up with such a weak declaration when we needed urgent action to stop 8,500 people dying and 13,500 people from becoming infected every day," Sharma said.
AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognised in 1981, according to UNAIDS, the UN agency coordinating the fight against the disease.
Gender equality was one of the more contentious topics under debate at the meeting, and the final draft notably contained fresh language pledging countries to allow women greater control over their sexual and reproductive health, "free of coercion, discrimination and violence."
UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot urged the General Assembly to adopt the declaration, saying it would "take us to the next stage in the fight against AIDS."
"Even though we may have differences of tactics, as was clear this week, we are all a critical piece of the same strategy," Piot said.
"Not only is there room for everybody, there is also a need for everybody," he added.
The need for preventive education -- particularly for young women -- was highlighted at the opening of Friday's session by US First Lady Laura Bush.
"More people need to know how AIDS is transmitted -- and every country has an obligation to educate its citizens," Bush told the packed General Assembly hall.
"This is why every country must also improve literacy, especially for women and girls, so they can learn to make wise choices that will keep them healthy and safe," she said.
Reminding delegates that AIDS had inflicted the "single greatest reversal" in the history of human development, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan stressed that female empowerment was crucial to turning the tide against the disease.
"It requires greater resources for women, better laws for women, and more seats for women at the decision-making table," he said.
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