Pretoria - South Africa has underlined the continuing need for urgent and coordinated global action to curb the impact of HIV and Aids in conflict and post-conflict situations, while calling on UN peacekeeping interventions to take a more focused approach in its response to the scourge.
Speaking at the historic session of the UN Security Council (UNSC), Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe acknowledged the important role United Nations peacekeeping operations could play in responding to the epidemic.
He told the council that in the short term, qualitative UN peacekeeping interventions should focus on achieving immediate gains that would mitigate the harmful effects of the epidemic.
Motlanthe said decisive action to reduce and prevent conflict-related sexual violence might be a critical intervention in an integrated UN strategy.
In the medium to long term, the Deputy President said focus should be on helping countries that require assistance to develop strategies for preventing HIV infections, especially amongst women and children.
"Assistance in accessing universal health care by improving the health sector and strengthening health systems, as well devising roll-out strategies for anti-retroviral therapies, is an area to which the UN-led global action can add value in reconstructing post-conflict societies," Motlanthe said.
Usually infrastructure, health services, and the social structures that traditionally provide support for communities, are invariably destroyed in areas of conflict, instability and violence. In turn, women and children bear the brunt.
Motlanthe said joint outreach activities that address the needs of affected communities need to be incorporated.
"These could range from new and prolonged conflict, post-conflict, refugee camps with people in transit or stable environments, the needs of armed personnel, humanitarian workers and most importantly women and children," he said.
This week's high-level meeting of the General Assembly provides an opportunity for Member States to review progress and to chart the future course of the global Aids response.
It has now been 30 years into the epidemic and 10 years since the General Assembly's Special Session on HIV and Aids in 2001.
In a resolution adopted unanimously during a meeting on the impact of HIV and Aids on international peace and security, the Council recognised that UN peacekeeping operations could be important contributors to an integrated response to HIV and Aids.
"Whenever Aids is part of the equation, the United Nations is working to be part of the solution," Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said at the meeting.
Ban noted that before resolution 1308 was adopted, uniformed personnel were viewed in terms of the risk they might pose to civilians.
"Now we understand that UN troops and police are part of prevention, treatment and care. What this resolution does is to again place on the international agenda, the question of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
"It aims to highlight the specific role the UN System, particularly their blue helmets on the ground can have in combating the spread of HIV, especially in areas that would be vulnerable to the pandemic anyway.
"We also need action after the ink dries on agreements and the guns fall silent. We need to help shattered societies prevent the spread of HIV, and we must provide treatment to everyone who needs it," said Ban.
