Mr. President,

Your Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

AIDS is a development catastrophe.

In Abuja African leaders recently declared that AIDS constituted a state of emergency for the whole continent. Other regions of the world are reporting alarming infection rates. We are facing a global crisis. This calls for a global response. Global solidarity.

Our fight against HIV/AIDS must be part of our fight against poverty. For AIDS causes poverty. And poverty undermines our struggle to combat AIDS.

Winning the war against AIDS will take courageous political leadership. Like that provided by President Museveni, by President Obasanjo, and by others present here today.

It will take an unprecedented mobilization of resources. Additional resources. Like the domestic resources pledged by African leaders in Abuja. Like the increased ODA often pledged, but seldom delivered. It will take external resources mobilized through innovative, private-public partnerships like the proposed global fund.

It will mean breaking down the wall of silence and denial. Overcoming our natural shyness about talking about sex and condoms. In public. To our youngsters. The price of silence and denial has become much too high. Too high for parents. Higher still for millions of orphans.

It will mean putting an end to abuse, discrimination and stigmatization. So that little Nkosi Johnson from South Africa, who shamed and inspired us equally, did not die in vain. We must offer partnership, not exclusion. Partnership with people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. Innovative ways of working with such vulnerable groups as men who have sex with men, injecting drug users, sex workers. Openness and cooperation promote responsible behaviour. Stigmatization increases vulnerability.

It will take a response firmly based on the promotion and protection of human rights. The right to development. The right to health. The right to life.

Why? Because people whose rights and dignity are violated become more vulnerable to HIV infection. Because discrimination of those infected also discourages testing and undermines effective prevention. Because the epidemic poses a new and grave challenge to the fulfilment of the right to health.

Mr. President,

We welcome the recent progress in making AIDS-related drugs more accessible and affordable. We must now push on to deal with the structural and systemic barriers to such access. The pharmaceutical industry must be held morally responsible for making its drugs accessible. More must be done on differential pricing. The public health safeguards in the TRIPS agreement must become a real option for developing countries.

But drugs alone will not bring us victory. Even much cheaper drugs must still be paid for. They must be delivered. They must be administered. Patients must receive treatment and care. It is irresponsible to talk about drugs without mentioning additional resources. To talk about drugs without mentioning health delivery systems.

Prevention must remain the mainstay of our response to halt the spread of AIDS. At the same time we must assume responsibility for those already infected. Effective health systems combine and reinforce both these courses of action.

Young people must be given tools and life skills to protect themselves. Condoms must be widely available and affordable. We must increase efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission. Women must be empowered so that they can truly protect themselves. We must promote male responsibility. We must harness the desire of trade unions to protect their members, the desire of employers to protect their workers.

The Security Council has recognized the impact of AIDS on peace and security. Armed conflicts fuel the epidemic and multiply the number of victims. We must work with the uniformed services, including peacekeeping personnel. During an international peace support exercise in Norway recently, I was proud to be the first to hand out the HIV/AIDS Awareness Card for Peacekeeping Operations, produced by UNAIDS and the UN Department for Peacekeeping Operations with Norwegian funding.

We must mobilize on a broad front.

No government can deal with the challenges of the epidemic on its own. This calls for an extraordinary partnership with civil society and the private sector. It calls for alliances with all democratic forces, across political divides.

And we must start at home.

In the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs every director general has become a member of our AIDS team, every department given an AIDS mandate. Inspired by African AIDS commissions, we have established a Forum for AIDS and development, as well as an Aidsnet, where labour, business, culture, sport, churches, NGO leaders, the mass media and the research community have joined as partners in the fight against AIDS. I am proud to have many of them here as members of my delegation.

Mr. President,

The counter-offensive against AIDS cannot be won without a bigger war chest.

The Norwegian Government welcomes the proposal for a new global fund for AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The operational framework must be set up in close cooperation with the developing countries that are most affected. The fund must tie in with and complement existing efforts and structures, particularly the UNAIDS umbrella. It must be effectively geared to country implementation. It must become operational soon.

My government is pledging an additional NOK 1 billion (approximately USD 110 million) over the next five years to international efforts against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. We attach particular importance to strengthening health systems in developing countries in cooperation with the WHO, and to reaching the poorest and hardest hit. How much will be channelled through existing mechanisms, and how much through the new fund, will be decided when we know more about the fund.

Mr. President,

Let me conclude by paying tribute to the Secretary-General for the way he has made the fight against AIDS a personal cause and a priority issue for the UN system. His leadership will surely be needed in the follow-up to the Special Session as well.

Thank you.