Federation of Young European Greens and Global Young Greens
Press Release concerning the World AIDS Day on the 1st of December 2010
“The fight against HIV/AIDS has not been won yet!”
The Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG) and the Global Young Greens (GYG) announce:
“The fight against AIDS has still not been won, although the awareness has nearly vanished in the Western world. 90 % of the 14000 daily infections occur in countries of the Global South, 2/3 of the HIV infected people live in Sub-Sahara Africa. The lack of antiretroviral therapies among pregnant women in the Global South leads to high numbers of babies being born with HIV.
Since 1981 25 million people worldwide have died of AIDS. This clearly reveals that the development strategies, that the Global North was and is still following, have not been sufficient in the fight against HIV and not able to stop the trend towards more infections and a higher mortality rate.
That is why FYEG and GYG urge world leaders to make HIV a priority in their political agenda. On the one hand preventive measures are needed with more sexual education and free distribution of condoms. Consequently, we condemn the irresponsible anti-contraceptive policy of the Catholic Church that is likely causing the death of thousands of people each year.
On the other hand medication for people who are already infected needs to be provided – especially in countries of the Global South. Here the Global North is obligated to show that human life is more important than patent law on HIV medication!”
