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Challenged by Annan on AIDS, Asian-Pacific region pledges urgent action

Challenged by Annan on AIDS, Asian-Pacific region pledges urgent action

Summoned by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to answer the "terrifying challenge" of reversing the growing threat of AIDS, Asian-Pacific countries today committed themselves to urgently address profound social problems, especially poverty, unemployment, social exclusion and deadly infectious diseases.

The 59th Commission Session of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) adopted four resolutions, including one demanding commitment and political will at the highest decision-making levels to fight HIV/AIDS, calling it “a major development challenge of our times, which could unravel the many social and economic gains that the region has achieved.”

In a message urging the Commission to gird itself for the challenge, Mr. Annan told ministers and senior government officials from 47 nations: “Left unchecked AIDS can devastate millions of lives and impose big burdens on the region's health system.”

UNESCAP's Executive Secretary, Mr. Kim Hak-Su, said: “Inertia and inaction on HIV/AIDS when we can prevent death is a crime against humanity. We must act now to increase resources for targeted interventions – protect 620 million young people in the region.”

A resolution on Strengthening Social Safety in the Asia and Pacific Region, stressed that public policy on social welfare should move beyond “crisis management” to strengthening the overall social safety systems to help people manage risks.

It calls for strengthened efforts to foster social integration and an enabling environment for social development, by promoting productive employment and eradicating poverty.

Other resolutions called for full equal rights for peoples with disabilities and for promoting sustainable growth and development in the least developed countries (LDCs).

"The population of the LDCs has risen to an estimated 700 million, about 11 per cent of the world's population,” Anwarul K. Chowdhury, UN High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, said in a statement read out for him.

“However, their share of the world's GDP is only about 0.6 per cent. After two decades of efforts to address their social and economic agenda, development remains still elusive for the 49 LDCs, of whom 13 are in the Asia-Pacific region," he added.