Canadian Civil Society Priorities for the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS

The Political Declaration should prioritize the Greater Involvement of People living with HIV and AIDS (GIPA), the Meaningful Engagement of People living with HIV and AIDS (MEPA) and the Meaningful Engagement of Women Living with HIV and AIDS (MEWA). [...] Specific and dedicated attention must be paid to the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls living with HIV, such as ensuring their rights and access to care within vertical transmission prevention programs and ending forced sterilization and other coercive practices. [...] The Political Declaration should address the complex barriers to health faced by migrants, and at minimum align with and uphold the commitments made in the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. [...] The Political Declaration should include recognition of systemic racism as a driver of the HIV epidemic and should align with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the key principles that States “prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour, or nati. [...] Such accountability mechanisms should include the “collection and use of sex-, gender-, population-, and age-disaggregated data to track funding of key populations, including Indigenous peoples, women and other people underserved by the response, aiming to maximize impact and transparency, accountability and efficiency of resources and policy decisions,” in alignment with the Global AIDS Strategy.