Newsday - June 26, 2001
Laurie Garrett, Staff Correspondent

The draft AIDS resolution, favored by the UNAIDS Programme and all UN agencies, came under attack from the Arab League and other Muslim nations for language deemed favorable to gay men and lesbians. At issue is how the vulnerability of at-risk groups to HIV should be described and what steps should be taken to protect them.

Against this background of contention, for which no resolution was apparent at day's end, there were powerful statements from numerous heads of state, as well as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, regarding the scale of the global AIDS crisis.

"Up to now, the world's response has not measured up to the challenge. But this year we have seen a turning point," UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan told the delegates at the opening of the General Assembly. "AIDS can no longer do its dirty work in the dark. The world had started to wake up."

Annan, anticipating the upcoming debate over sensitive issues such as homosexuality, said that political leaders have a special set of responsibilities in what he called "the world's nightmare."

"When we urge others to change their behavior, so as to protect themselves against infection, we must be ready to change our own behavior in the public arena," Annan said on the first day of the three-day session. "We cannot deal with AIDS by making moral judgments or refusing to face unpleasant facts-and still less by stigmatizing those who are infected, and making out that it is all their fault."

President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal echoed Annan's plea and said, "Combatting AIDS means first of all talking about it and breaking down the conspiracy of silence. It means no marginalization" of people who are infected with HIV or are members of high-risk groups.

The president of Ghana, John Kufour, called upon UN delegates to "alleviate moral squeamishness." And Mozambique's President Pascoal Mocumbi urged delegates to recall that, "AIDS is not like smallpox or polio. We may not be able to eliminate it with one shot or vaccine. Abstinence is not an option when those [women] who try to negotiate condom use face violence. We must summon up the courage to talk candidly...about sexuality."

The entire special session devolved into arguments as Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan, Malaysia and other Islamic nations used parliamentary procedure to prevent a representative of the International Lesbian and Gay Association for Human Rights from speaking before a UN panel yesterday. After more than two hours of heated debate, the Arab League and Islamic nations boycotted further voting, and a bare quorum of the General Assembly voted in their absence to permit the presentation.

"We have more important issues to discuss and to deal with than whether we should use the language of homosexuality or non- homosexuality. That is my opinion," President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, of which 5 percent of all adults are HIV-positive.

The text of the actual resolution against AIDS was not distributed yesterday because of the Islamic contingent's exceptions.

"The issue is not that nobody doubts that homosexuals or commercial sex workers are a vulnerable group," explained Mark Malloch Brown, executive director of the United Nations Development Programme. "But there are some countries that believe that they brought this upon themselves by their behavior, so any inference that they are deserving of support is without merit."

Sources privy to the several weeks of negotiations over the HIV/ AIDS resolution that preceded yesterday's gathering say it should have been obvious to organizers of the special session that these issues would imperil the global AIDS control agreement.

"We tried to reach a resolution," Brazil's Minister of Health, Dr. Jos Serra, said in an interview. "We cannot accept saying homosexuality is sinful. It doesn't make any sense not to reach our goal because of this."

Serra was in a good mood, despite the debate, because yesterday the United States dropped its World Trade Organization lawsuit against Brazil. Because Brazil manufactures its own, generic versions of patented anti-HIV medicines, the United States had charged that Article 68 of Brazil's industrial property laws violated WTO agreements. After months of negotiations, the U.S. government yesterday dropped its claim. And Brazil, in turn, agreed not to export its cheap versions of American-patented HIV drugs.

"Under no circumstance will we export," Serra said. "We have a market to supply" domestically.

Brazil's drug policies may not yet be out of controversial waters. In a news conference, Harvey Bale, head of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations, said that the pharmaceutical industry plans to continue its pressure on Brazil, and warned that companies may drop AIDS research if they cannot be assured of patent protections worldwide.

In a news conference, Powell said that it was merely a coincidence that the U.S. lawsuit against Brazil, which had been the source of tense relations between the nations for more than two months, was dropped at the opening of the Special Session.

In his address to the General Assembly, Powell said that, "to date, our global response to this rapidly spreading scourge has been woefully inadequate. What will historians say of us if we continue to delay? Will history record a fateful moment in our time, on our watch, when action came too late?...I was a soldier. But I know of no enemy in war more insidious or vicious than AIDS, an enemy that poses a clear and present danger to the world."

Powell focused his remarks on the Global Fund for AIDS and Health, as it is now being called, to which the White House has committed $200 million for fiscal year 2002. In his remarks, Powell said that, "more will come from the United States as we learn where our support can be effective."

Powell said that if the Global Fund shapes up, "I would expect that additional funds will become available in the future" from the United States.

While debate raged over homosexuality, the core concerns for most African nations was, indeed, the Global Fund, which would theoretically offer a vital lifeline for HIV patients and for national AIDS prevention campaigns. The resolution-as written prior to this week's debate-sets clear timetables for creation of the fund and implementation of HIV programs.

The Global Fund and its management structure "will be in place before the end of the year," vowed Annan. But at that point it will probably fall well short of meeting Annan's goal of $7 billion to $10 billion, a goal set to be achieved by 2005. Besides previously announced commitments from the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom and France and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, all totaling about $400 million, three nations made promises yesterday. Norway said it will put $110 million into the fund, impoverished Uganda vowed to donate $2 million and Obasanjo said that Nigeria will give $10 million.

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