General Assembly: High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS: Thematic panel discussion 3 - Informal meeting of the plenary, 80th session

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I call to order the third thematic panel discussion of the 2026 high level meeting on HIV AIDS on the theme community leadership, driving an inclusive and sustainable HIV response.
Let me take this opportunity to warmly welcome all of you.
I'm honored to serve as your co chair, together with His Excellency Bertran Senal, Minister of Health of Haiti.
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Monsieur ministra.
Thank you, Your Excellency, for addressing these important points.
The global community has been fighting HIV AIDS as a global health threat for over 40 years.
In those 40 years, the communities of people living with, at risk of and affected by HIV AIDS have been instrumental in driving and shaping this fight.
Since the early days of the epidemic, communities have advocated fiercely for the need to drive scientific innovation, for investments in quality information, care, and services, and to fight stigma and discrimination.
We can say with absolute certainty that the results we have been able to achieve so far would not have been possible without the commitment, perseverance, and leadership of communities including key populations.
Despite clear evidence of success, community led approaches in the HIV response are under increased pressure.
The growing anti rights movement, shrinking civic space, and decreases in financing all undermine community leadership and therefore our shared goal of ending AIDS by 2030.
So what can governments like ours do better to secure an inclusive and sustainable HIV response in which communities lead? Firstly, we must recognize communities as full partners in our national AIDS responses and meaningfully engage them in shaping policies and interventions.
Secondly, we need to make sure that flexible and predictable funding is available.
As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, we have a long history of supporting civil society organizations directly, and we are determined to continue to do so.
Through new commitments, we will invest even more in local civil society organizations in Southern Africa to increase access to HIV prevention and care and to secure sexual and reproductive health and rights for women, girls, and key populations.
Lastly, we must commit to shape a supportive civic space by reviewing and reforming restrictive legal and policy frameworks.
We should also actively combat stigma and discrimination and include communities in policy dialogues, including multilateral forums like the high level meeting.
I look forward to hearing this panel's valuable insights on how to further strengthen community leadership, to improve HIV outcomes, human rights, and social inclusion.
Thank you very much.
Okay.
Yes.
Thank you very much, everyone, and welcome to this thematic panel on community Leadership at the center, driving an inclusive and sustainable HIV response.
I'm a Belgian transgender woman living with HIV and for me, it's really important to have this discussion.
Communities are the center of the HIV response.
Having these discussions during the high level meeting shows the commitment of all member states to continue engaging communities in the HIV response, keeping us at the center, and ensuring that our national responses are evidence based and informed by the needs of the people who we serve.
Thank you.
I really want to thank on behalf of all people living with HIV for all your time, your efforts, and your commitment to really ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
We need you now more than ever.
And having said that, we have an amazing panel with us today.
We shall first hear presentations by the panelists and thereafter, the floor will be open for comments, observations and questions.
I first give the floor to doctor George Kpels.
His Excellency, doctor George Kiepels is the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Minister of Health of Germany, a long serving member of the Bundst.
With decades of experience in health policy, global health cooperation and development committees, he has been consistent advocate for strengthening health systems and international partnerships.
He brings deep legislative expertise and a strong commitment to advancing Germany's role in global health.
We just came from an amazing interaction around the leadership of communities hosted a by the German government and the Netherlands.
Doctor Kieels, I want to start with the first question.
Why is it important to have meaningful participation of civil society engagement in shaping global health architecture? How do multilateralism and international partnerships drive effective health policy making and collaboration to fortify health systems.
Over to you.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, Germany applauds the chair for choosing this important topic for the panel.
We are meeting in difficult times.
Hard won gains in health and human rights are under pressure, I think that HIV epidemic cannot be taken for granted.
More than ever, we need a global collective effort.
For Germany, community leadership is a cornerstone for a successful HIV response.
Nearly 30 years of experience have proved that.
Communities drive prevention and communication.
They facilitate access to care free of stigma and discrimination, and they help to sustain political will.
Germany strongly supports community led responses both nationally and internationally.
At national level, communities are at the center of the HIV strategy.
This is reflected in our annual support of 6.5 million euros for the work of the German AIDS Foundation, an umbrella organization of around 115 organizations and institutions in Germany.
The value of these community led structures extends beyond HIV AIDS during the epox outbreak.
In 2022, these organizations played a central role in Germany in reaching key populations quickly and effectively because established and trusted structures were already in place.
From the German point of view, it's also essential to ensure that civil society is part of the governance of UN AIDS, the global fund, and other key global partners.
With regard to the current process, Germany supports a responsible transition of UN AIDS that preserves its core mandate, including a meaningful role of civil society as well as community engagement.
For Germany, the message is clear, communities and civil society are indispensable to reach our goal.
They must remain at the heart of our global HIV response.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, doctor pos, for reminding us of the important role of civil society and communities in governance mechanisms.
What we see in UN AIDS is that centrality role that doesn't happen in other UN entities where civil society has a role in the governance body.
We need to preserve that meaningful engagement and role of communities in other health platforms.
Thank you very much.
We will now proceed to our second panelist, Mr.
Jeremy Tan.
He is the Youth lead regional coordinator to provide some opening panelists remarks also.
Okay.
Thank you, Madam Chair, member state, distinguished delegates and colleagues.
Let me start by saying thank you to giving these spaces to young people and also the community to be a part of this discussion.
As someone who worked alongside with youngke population across the Asia Pacific, I have seen firsthand how youth response change the life of young people.
A youth led organization and community led organization are often the first place where young people receive information without judgment, where we are connected to services, and where we first learn that our right and our health go hand in hand.
However, today, I am worried that while we are celebrating the success that we made, we might have overlooked the reality they faced by the young people, the key population and other priority population.
So I want to ask a question.
If we are serious about youth leadership and community leadership, and if we say it is essential, why is it still treated as optional priority? Let's look at the number.
Less than 3% of the global HIV response flow directly to the community led organization, and out of that amount, less than 1% of it goes to organization led by young population.
Yes, you heard that correctly, less than 1%.
That number itself expose us that our words and our action are far away from the direction of building a people center and a sustainable HIV response.
So some of us here might refute me and say that, but we have made remarkable progress in science, in technology, and medicine.
Isn't that enough? The response is, no.
As mentioned during yesterday panel session, innovation itself is not enough.
You need the environment that facilitate it.
In reality, young people are already facing the direct consequences of it without having our reality reflected.
This is shown in the UN AIDS in Danger Report, where we see an increasing of HIV cases in 38 countries and young people are bearing the heaviest burden.
This means that we risk losing a generation to a preventable epidemic.
So what should we do? What we need to do is to reach young people where they are in online, in community, and in conversation.
To end, I am sure that if we continue on this trajectory, the prevention crisis we are seeing across the globe, especially among young people in Asia Pacific, will be unmanageable.
We need to ensure the continuation of youth led services, expansion of comprehensive sexuality education, and also harm reduction education, and the removal of age related barrier to access information and services.
Yesterday, my sister Liliana from Tanzania said it perfectly during the side event that we must move beyond than business as usual.
Instead, fund young people as equal partner, not just beneficiary.
We need a stronger peer driven investment and intervention across the prevention, the treatment casket, and the care system, but also meaningful engagement in data generation, governance, accountability, and advocacy.
Let me remind everyone in this room and who are listening online that we cannot achieve the 905-90-5905 target without advancing the 30, 80, 60 community led response target, as well as the 1010, ten societal enabler target.
With that, I thank you.
Again.
Jeremy, thank you very much.
Jeremy, thank you very much for reminding us of the need to continue engaging you to do better for challenging us, that we can do better, that what we have done while it's good, it is not enough.
We are amid a lot of changes and perhaps these reforms that we are having in our system is an opportunity to meet those challenges.
Thank you for bringing the voices of young people into this space.
We're going to move to our third panelist, doctor Dan Quita, who is the Executive Director of UNFPA and the United Nations Under Secretary-General, bringing over three decades of leadership in international development and public service.
Formerly Guinea's Minister of Cooperation and African Integration, she has held senior UNFPA roles and served as UN resident coordinator in multiple countries.
The question I would like to pose to you is based on evidence collected by the joint program, what are the effects of criminalizing key populations, shrinking civic space, and regression in human rights on the HIV response? How do overlapping crises such as funding cuts and humanitarian emergencies compound each other? What does this mean for communities living with, at risk of, and vulnerable to HIV? Who is being left behind? Over to you.
Thank you so much, Erika.
Distinguished co chair of this big panel, Monsieur Lomie de Sant IT, Mr.
Acker, Deputy Director of Social Development of the Netherlands.
Excellency, distinguished co panelists.
Thank you so much for inviting you NFPA to this important panel.
The progress we have made on HIV is remarkable.
Since 1996, the global HIV response has saved nearly 27 million lives and treatment now reaches 78% of people living with HIV.
This success was built by frontline civil society and human rights activists.
It is one of the strongest example of global solidarity, and this is the place to thank you and AIDs amazing collaboration and coordination, as well as the co sponsors.
But today, that progress is at risk.
You all heard right now, Jeremy, right now.
We can't let young people and all gender diverse groups down.
We can't let them down.
This is so critical.
And all of us, as co sponsor in our leadership role, we have our job cut out for us.
The historic 23% drop in global development aid last year is putting essential HIV prevention in danger.
2024-25, testing in high burden region fell by 20% In some setting, funding for basic prevention tools like condom has dropped by over 90% and the uptake of pre exposure prophylaxis dropped by 38%.
Let's say the truth.
Some word today as sexuality education cannot even pronounce in some conditions.
Let me say it bluntly there.
So these funding cuts are making humanitarian crisis even worse.
For a displaced person or a survivor of violence, a budget cut is just a line item.
It can mean losing access to lifesaving care altogether.
You heard honorable Minister from Haiti.
At the same time, we see civic space shrinking and more punitive laws are targeting the very people most affected by HIV.
This regression has fatal consequences.
Fear of prosecution drive people away from testing and care.
History tells us that disease spread where human rights are suppressed.
Please, let's be very careful with that.
It's about people's lives.
We cannot end AIDS while criminalization and stigma force people into hiding.
All of us human rights stop when someone else rights starts.
We must remove the legal and social barriers that prevent people from seeking care and invest in programs that reach those most at risk.
Excellencies, distinguished member states.
To end AIDS, we must put communities in the driver's seat.
Communities rich people that health system often cannot, including gay population, adolescent girl, young women, young men, and every population.
They make services trusted, accessible, and free from stigma.
I repeat, free from stigma.
The involvement of people living with HIV remain critical.
Community leadership must be fully supported, properly funded, and protected by law.
UNFP has seen this power firsthand through our support to the youth peer education Network.
Peer, we have helped translate a grassroots response into powerful global network across 50 countries.
We work on the ground supporting youth led solution, ensuring that young people have the tool to dismantle discriminatory gender and social norm.
For decades, civil society has driven the HIV response, and when resources reach peer indicators and community organization, the results are so clear.
Not only deliver services, they strengthen people's ability to protect their own health and claim their rights.
As we enter a new era of long acting HIV prevention, the power of community to drive and sustain demand is absolutely essential.
UNFPA stand firmly with frontline communities.
We will continue to work alongside you to deliver integrated HIV and sexual and productive health services.
Guided by the motto, nothing about us without us.
Let us live here, committed to funding community infrastructure, protecting human right, and anchoring the fight against HIV in health, equity, and bodily autonomy for all.
I thank you.
Thank you very much for highlighting the important role of the co sponsors and for reminding us that while we are having these conversations, it is about people's lives.
It is about those persons who have been forced into hiding because of criminalization and that there is nothing we can do without communities.
Thank you very much.
And with that, we will come to our third panelists.
Miss Katherine ambura is a Pan African feminist and global health advocate from Kenya, serving as director of programs at the Athena Network with an academic background in biomedical research and public policy and experience in advocacy and program management.
She brings over a decade of leadership across sexual and reproductive health and rights, HIV, gender equality, and adolescent and youth engagement.
Kate, How can gender responsive integrated services led and adequately monitored by women and girls make a significant difference in bringing existing access gaps and improving the health and well being of women and girls in all their diversity? Thank you, moderator, distinguished delegates and excellences.
When we talk about integrated services for women and girls, it's not just about efficiency, it's about dignity, survival, and justice.
Throughout the history of the HIV response, communities, especially women and girls, have been at the center and the forefront of designing and shaping the architecture of the response.
Women living with HIV, adolescent girls, young women, communities have been the first ones to identify the gaps, being the strongest voices of accountability, and the first to respond and articulate the intersection between HIV and other issues.
Additionally, and specifically, women and girls don't experience HIV as one issue, SRHR as a different one, and gender based violence as separate and discrimination and so forth.
They experience all of these simultaneously, overlapping, compounding in a single body on a single day.
A young woman living with HIV, who is also experiencing intimate partner violence, who faces stigma every time she enters a clinic.
She does not need us to address one of these realities at a time.
She needs us to see the whole of her life and respond to it.
This is a foundation case for integration.
Therefore, integration must be tailored to ensure services rich women and girls in their diversity, adolescent girls, women with disabilities, key populations, women in humanitarian settings, and conflict settings, women in rural areas and remote areas.
We have decades of evidence and the evidence is clear.
When women and girls lead, design, monitor, and hold accountable the services meant to serve them, those services perform better, coverage improves, trust increases, and quality sustained.
Community infrastructure, including that led by human and Guld is not optional or complimentary.
It is core and essential to the global HIV response.
From our experience and our work, we have learned that girl led peer networks are more effective at changing norms than top down messaging.
Women and girls have been leading community work, sharing community scorecards as scored, which have surfaced the gaps that official data systems routinely missed.
It's not about tokenism, so there is need for us to urgently defend the shrinking spaces for communities engagement, making sure women and communities have the spaces, the resources, and the legitimacy to engage, including in shaping and defining integration.
From our experience working across Eastern and Southern Africa, implementing the What Girls O P, this is what we have learned.
Inclusive design is key from the start.
True integration requires designing with marginalized women and girls in mind, not retrofiting as an afterthought.
Protecting the right of women and girls to organize and lead 30 plus years after Beijing is still critical and important.
Mental health, as we heard yesterday on the first panel, is a core pillar and not an afterthought.
Healthcare worker inclusion is a game changer, including that of women and girls in the health care systems.
It's not about an chanism as I've mentioned earlier, it's about transforming structural power.
Women and girls in their diversity must sit at decision making tables, hold budgets, have the resources, and have the legal and institutional frameworks that protect their rights to organize, advocate, and lead without fear of retaliation.
And where those frameworks do not exist, our work is to redesign them and make sure that we continue to, um, to deliver for women and girls as those affected, impacted, and at risk of HIV.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much, Kate.
We have heard from our panelists nothing for us without us.
Communities at the center, communities in leadership, youth leadership, spaces and resources for women and girls.
We need the resources to define and to shape what integration means.
Women and girls a seat at decision making tables.
I would say we need an upgrade and just a seat.
We need to lead the tables and remain central to the HIV response.
Thank you to all our panelists.
I will now open the floor for comments and statements.
I would like to remind delegations that there is no established list of speakers for this meeting.
Delegations wishing to speak are requested to press the microphone button.
To ensure that we hear as many speakers as possible, delegations are requested to limit their statements to 2 minutes when speaking in their national capacity and 3 minutes when speaking on behalf of group of states.
Once again, time limits will be strictly enforced through an automatic microphone cutoff.
A timer will be projected on the screen.
Delegations may also submit their full length written statements through email to etments at un.org, which will be posted under etments of the United Nations Journal.
I thank you for your cooperation.
I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Colombia, followed by Malawi.
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Co chairs, distinguished delegates.
In Malawi, community leadership and inclusiveness in the HIV response has been one of the significant drivers of progress of the HIV epidemic control.
Communities have moved beyond being beneficiaries of services to becoming leaders, advocates, researchers, service telef monitors, and decision makers in reshaping the response.
Marawi also recognizes and has embraced civil community and civil society organizations as dispsable partners in service provision, accountability, advocacy, and innovation.
Committee aid monitoring championed by CSOs generates real time evidence on the quality of health care delivery and ensures that policymakers and service providers are duty bound and accountable to the communities they serve.
At community level, support groups for people living with HIV have created structures that continue to strengthen the HIV response.
These groups have become platforms for empowerment, knowledge sharing, psychosocial support, and treatment literacy.
Communities and CSOs also play a critical role in improving service delivery through community aid monitoring, thereby strengthening accountability and contributing to improvements in quality, accessibility, and responsiveness of the HIV response.
Finally, community leadership is also advancing human rights and gender equality.
Community structures have empowered women, young people, and other vulnerable populations to understand and claim their rights, challenge discrimination, and advocate to equitable access to health care.
I thank you.
Thank you very much.
I now give the floor to Honorable Dolores Band Ramos, distinguished representative of Belize, followed by the NCD Alliance.
Madam Chair, as a sister Belizeian, I greet and commend you.
Communities continue to be at the heart of the global HIV AIDS response since the beginning of the epidemic.
In Belize, key population groups and people with HIV representatives have an equal seat in our national response.
Cognizant of the critical and important role that communities play in the national response to HIV and AIDS, the National AIDS Commission in Belize, with support from UN AIDS has provided capacity development to several civil society organizations on community led monitoring, which will allow them to collect and analyze quantitative as well as qualitative data on service delivery.
This monitoring empowers clients to drive evidence based advocacy, improve accountability, and push for equitable care.
The AIDS Commission, with the support from the government of Belize, is currently implementing social contracting with civil society organizations in the provision of services to children and their families, which are affected by and living with HIV and also our key and special population groups.
This supports the Ministry of Health and Wellness in reaching our hard to reach populations, and we intend to continue our striving and our efforts.
Madam Chair, as assister Belizian, once more, I greet and commend you and I thank this forum.
Thank you very much.
Now, don't make me cry, Minister.
We move over to give the floor to NCD Alliance, followed by May.
Thank you, Chair.
Today, people living with HIV are living longer and healthier lives, yet many are also living with non communicable diseases, mental health conditions, and other comorbidities.
Healthcare for people living with HIV can no longer be built around a single disease, nor do communities want it to.
Health systems must address the full range of health needs people experience throughout their lives.
We welcome the recognition of NCDs, mental health, multimorbidity, and integrated service delivery in the Political Declaration, at a time of evolving global health architecture and increasing financial Integration is not only a health imperative, but a practical necessity.
Integrated approaches can improve health outcomes, strengthen health systems, and make more effective use of limited resources.
The future of the HIV response depends on integrated people centered systems that address HIV, NCDs and mental health together.
At the same time, we regret that the current text does not reaffirm the measurable integrated care commitment agreed by member states in the 2021 Political Declaration.
In 2021, member states committed to ensuring that 90% of people living with at risk of and affected by HIV received integrated services that address HIV, NCDs, mental health, and broader health and well being needs, resulting in an accountability gap around commitments to integrated care.
NCDA stands ready to work with all partners to advance integrated HIV, NCD and mental health services and support health systems that meet the full range of people's health needs.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Mali, followed by Spain.
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I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Spain, followed by the World Health Organization.
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I now give the floor to the World Health Organization, followed by Eurasian Harm Reduction Association.
Chair, Excellency colleagues, the World Health Organization places meaningful engagement with communities and civil society at the center of its work and remains firmly committed to advancing community leadership, equity, and human rights as essential foundations of an effective, inclusive and sustainable HIV response.
Community leadership has been at the heart of the extraordinary progress achieved in the HIV response Alongside advances communities have shaped policies, delivered services, advanced human rights, challenged stigma and discrimination, and ensured accountability to those most affected.
This is especially important as countries advance more integrated approaches to HIV, tuberculosis, viral hepatitis, and sexually transmitted infections.
WHO was pleased to support the global network of people living with HIV, GNP plus, and partners in developing the minimum requirements for integrated for integrated HIV services.
This initiative underscores a fundamental principle.
Integration is not simply about combining services, it must be people centered, stigma free, free, protect human rights, and be responsive to the needs of people living with HIV in affected communities.
As countries implement the outcomes of the high level meeting, community leadership must remain at the center of efforts, especially to ensure a sustainable response in today's challenging landscape of financial constraints and health system transitions by strengthening primary health care while preserving The principles of human rights, equity, and community engagement that have defined the HIV response countries can build more resilient, sustainable health systems for the future.
WHO stands ready to work with communities, governments, and partners to translate the commitments of the high level meeting into action.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Welcome.
To the World Health Organization.
I now give the floor to the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association, followed by the United Kingdom.
I hope it's working.
I'm representing 200 organizations, United in Europe Asian Harmdction Association and broadly our joint rise in decriminalized movement.
I speak on behalf of communities from Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the only region where the HIV epidemic is still growing.
Our region is unfortunately known for the lack of governmentally funded access to evidence based response among criminalized and stigmatized communities such as harm reduction and in the largest countries of the region.
The region is also facing a war comparable in scale to the World World two, causing death, loss of health and homes, human rights violations, and displacement of millions of Ukrainians.
Across our region, people are criminalized and put in prison for drug use, sex work, sexual orientation, gender identity, HIV transmission, or even living with HIV.
Or illegal immigration.
These laws drive people away from HIV prevention, testing, treatment, harm reduction, and care.
Women who use drugs or living with HIV often have no access to protection, care, or shelters when facing gender based violence.
The same region is experiencing unprecedented shrinking space and attacks on community led organization.
We are facing an expansion of so called anti drug propaganda laws, anti homo proropaganda laws, foreign agent law and undesirable organization designation.
These measures are dismantling organizations that provide lifesaving services, monitor program, and hold governments accountable.
In this region, community are leading HIV response on the local and national level.
I have an honor of speaking on behalf of strong, capable, and united communities.
Our central message is simple.
We cannot end AIDS while criminalizing the people and affected and organization that support them.
Community led services, monitoring and advocacy might be recognized as integral components of national health system.
Thank you very much.
I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the United Kingdom, followed by Global Black Am ****.
Thank you, Chair.
The UK welcomes this important discussion.
Ending AIDS as a public health threat means we must recognize that HIV response has always been driven by communities.
Their leadership is fundamental to the response.
Today, nearly 41 million people are living with HIV, and for millions, access to treatment has transformed what was once a fatal diagnosis into a condition that allows people to live long healthy lives.
We have seen what works.
Community led approaches have expanded access to prevention and treatment, reduced stigma, and helped reach those too often left behind.
But structural barriers, including stigma, discrimination, and restrictive laws continue to restrict rights and limit access to HIV services, particularly for those at greatest risk.
We must protect and defend the rights of those most at risk of HIV and empower communities to lead, not just to deliver services, but to shape policies, influence decision making, and hold systems to account.
So investing in community leadership is essential and the foundation on which the HIV response is built.
If we act on that principle through funding, policy, and partnership, we can accelerate progress, reach those most in need, and deliver more inclusive, effective, and sustainable responses.
The UK remains committed to directing our funding to organizations that place communities at their heart, work to remove barriers to access, support those most affected by HIV, and support inclusive and effective programs.
Thank you.
I thank the distinguished representative of the United Kingdom and now give the floor to Global Black Gaming Connect, followed by National Trans Coalition.
Hi, good afternoon.
My name is Michael La with Global Black Gay Magnete.
Thanks, Madam Chair and team for this wonderful panel conversation.
I represent a group of black gay men and gay organizations around the world, and I come to the UN as an important stakeholder in this space.
As you know, HIV has been a barrier in our community, not because of who we are, but because of the structural issues that affect the communities that we live in and where we work and how we engage.
And I think it's not because of the sex that we have, it's because of the criminalization that affects and impact who we are.
In countries around the world, including in Senegal, in Ghana, in Equatoria, Guinea, in South Africa, across the world, even though there are no laws on the book, gay men are criminalized and are killed across the world.
So as this is an important space that we're in where this might be the last high level meeting that we might ever have, It's really, really important for us to draw the curtain back to say, right now, gay men are still decriminalized, while being the most at risk for HIV infections around the world? We still don't have a solution for criminalization, but we are calling for all members in this room to stand with us to say enough is enough.
We must stop criminalizing gay men.
We must ensure that if we ever have to move this forward, move this high level declaration forward, we ensure the decriminalization of gay men across the world because we will never end HIV unless we end decriminalization.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I now give the floor to National Trans Coalition, followed by the distinguished representative of Thailand.
Thank you, Chair.
I'm speaking today as a representative of the National Trans Coalition, a grassroots transgender led organization in Armenia and a member of GAT.
I started my journey in the HIV response as an outreach worker, working directly with communities most affected by HIV.
Over the years through community led monitoring, research, advocacy and participation in national decision making processes, I have learned one important lesson.
Communities do not simply receive HIV services, we improve them, monitor them, and often fight to make them accessible in the first place.
This is not only my story.
It is the story of transgender communities across the region.
While community leadership is recognized as essential to ending AIDS, the HIV response among transgender people in Armenia and beyond has not yet fully realized this principle.
Too often, decisions are still made about our communities rather than with our communities.
Yet it is community organizations that identify barriers, builds trust, generate evidence and reach people who are otherwise left behind.
Today, together with Git and community partners, we're preparing a shadow report for the UN high level meeting on HIV AIDS.
So an analysis of the HIV cascade among transgender people and the review of state commitments, we aim to highlight both progress and the gaps that remain.
This work reflects a simple truth.
Communities are not only service recipients, we're producers of evidence, accountability, and solutions.
As we look forward to 2030, community leadership must mean more than consultation.
It requires sustainable funding, meaningful participation, and shared decision making power.
The question is no longer whether communities can lead, we already do.
The question is whether governments and donors are willing to provide trust and space necessary for communities to continue leading the response to HIV.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, National Trans Coalition.
I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Thailand, followed by Global Action for Trans equality.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thailand firmly believes that community are not simply beneficiary of the HIV Ls Bon, but also leader, innovator, advocate, and essential partner in achieving sustainable health outcome.
Thailand Ex Health demonsd that community engagement is more effective when community are fully integrated into the health system.
Why meaningful community leadership leads to more less bonive, equitable and people centered HIV services? For decades, Thailand extensive network health volunteer advocate to promote health, support with the delivery, and strengthen community tasks and outlets.
Civil society and NGOs have played a central role in A respond in our country.
In Bali, community representatives are also active participant in health governance and policymak, including to representation of the National Health Security Board and National AIDS Committee.
Thailand had also H to be sustainable domestic financing mechanism to support community less response to National Health Security Office and the Thai Health Promotion Fdation to support health promotion, prevention, lead Lion, and community outs.
In this L, the 2026 Political Declaration reaffirmed the central role of community in the HAV responses strengthening sustainable financing for community less and ensure that meaningful participation of affected community in policy development, implementation, monitoring, and accountability in all level.
Community must be empowered, adequately resource, and support at equal partner in ending as by 2030.
Thank you.
I thank the distinguished representative of Thailand, and I now give the floor to Global Action for Trans equality, followed by United for Global Mental Health.
Thank you, Chair.
I speak on behalf of GAT Global Action for Trans equality, an international organization advancing the human rights and health of transgender diverse communities worldwide.
Community leadership is not abstract.
We have the evidence.
Every meaningful advance in the HIV response from prevention and treatment to integration with gender affirming care and harm reduction services and the U equals Zoo movement have been driven by communities most affected, demanding to be seen, heard, and resourced.
Transgender diverse communities are no exception.
Our communities have been here since the beginning organizing, demanding, leading, and providing services where states would not.
Our communities burned our dead and still showed up, still thrived and yes, we're still waiting to be funded accordingly.
The data is clear, trans women face up to 20 times the, the HIV risk of the general population, trans men seven times.
However, trans andgender diverse people remain undercounted and collapsed within broader categories in HIV programming as key populations only or erroneously as men who have sex with men.
This is erasure.
TransL organizations remain chronically underfunded, excluded from national HIV strategies, and absent from the data system that should count them.
We cannot end AIDS by 2030 while systematically excluding the communities most affected by it.
So this high level meeting must produce a political declaration that goes beyond affirming language.
We call on all member states to fully fund community led organizations, remove all punitive legal barriers that drive key populations away from services, and ensure trans aggregated data informs every national response.
Communities are not beneficiaries of the HIV response.
We are its architects.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much.
I now give the floor to United for Global Mental Health, followed by Red Lack Trans.
Thank you very much.
Evidence clearly shows that the prevention and treatment of mental ill health reduces HIV infection rates and supports the overall health of those affected by HIV.
Mental health conditions are both drivers and consequences of HIV, increasing vulnerability and undermining outcomes across the prevention and care continuum.
They reduce testing and treatment uptake, weaken adherence to anti retroviral therapy and lower viral suppression.
Without addressing mental health, global HIV targets will not be met.
But what do we mean by integrating mental health into HIV responses? We mean embedding evidence based mental health interventions across the full HIV service continuum, prevention, testing, treatment, and long term care within HIV programs and primary health care in facility and community based settings.
Allocating dedicated resources to support integrated HIV and mental health services, expanding training and supervision, including community and peer led approaches to deliver person centered care, including mental health indicators in HIV monitoring frameworks to track progress and outcomes and addressing the intersecting stigma and discrimination to ensure inclusive, rights based, and gender responsive services.
The bottom line is that if we want to end HIV AIDS, then we must capitalize on the opportunities that mental health presents as the cross cutting health issue yet to be fully realized.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I now give the floor to Red Lac Tran, followed by ICW and destine La Falta program as taorablta Su integral para persona trans.
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Thank you very much for those remarks from ICW.
I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Brazil, followed by Haiti.
Thank you, moderator.
The Brazilian response to HIV and AIDS was built upon a strong role of civil society, social movements and affected communities.
Since the beginning of the epidemic, community organizations have contributed to the formulation of public policies, the defense of human rights, and expansion of access to prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care.
We are proud to have included civil society representatives in our official delegation since 2001, a tradition maintained in this high level meeting.
In Brazil, the unified health system is a constitutional right anchored by the National Health Council and our national health conferences, which guarantees social participation as a structuring principle and a permanent governance mechanism.
Through health councils and conferences, civil society, workers, and marginalized communities co decide with government representatives on policies, budgets, and priorities of public health policies.
In this way, the National Health Council represents one of the main experiences of institutionalized social participation in health.
The government of President Lula da Silva stands ready to share its experience on building its health system in an inclusive and democratic manner and invites ministers of health, civil society organizations, and international partners to join us in weaving participation into the fabric of global health governance.
Brazil also led the negotiation of the first resolution on social participation approved in history by the World Health Assembly in 2024, an instrument that offers important guidelines to guide social participation in the world.
In the HIV and AIDS agenda, these mechanisms strengthen the health system's response capacity and Thank you very much to the distinguished representative of Brazil.
I now give the floor to the distinguished Representative of Haiti, followed by Ireland.
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To the distinguished representative of Haiti.
I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Ireland, followed by Upcom Correction.
Ireland has withdrawn the petition.
I hand over the floor to Cambodia, followed by Apco.
Cambodia 95 95 success proved that community drive result.
However, international funding are declining.
We must transition from simply pricing community network to structurally supporting them through national funding.
The thematic panel highlighted a critical window of action.
We must front load domestic investment now to avoid the devastating health and financial crisis tomorrow.
As Cambodia prepare for economic graduation, we will lose the LDCs trip flexibility, which dry up future costs of lifesaving medicine.
To absorb this shock, we must urgently implement the non state actor contracting by using domestic resource.
Funding non state actors today, optimize the localized prevention, lower long term treatment demand and have their peer network directly into the national system.
It is not a burden, it is the best option to prevent burden.
I thank you.
Yes.
Thank you very much to the distinguished representative of Cambodia and I give the floor to Upcom.
Happy Pride month, everyone.
I work with Upcom based in Bangkok, Thailand.
Upcom is a regional organization working with communities on health rights and well being in over 30 countries in the Asia Pacific region.
Prevention option, including both oral and injectable pre exposure prophylaxis, known as prep, are central to HIV prevention in the region.
Community led organizations play an equal and vital role in advocating for and delivering these prevention services, ensuring they reach the most affected populations.
Despite PEPs proven efficacy, its uptake across the region remains sub optimal, underscoring the need for targeted coordinated efforts to address barriers to access, awareness and adherence.
The data shows that HIV infections in the region declined only by 17% since 2010.
That's well behind the global target.
In this context, EPCOM is committed to advancing the health and rights of men who have sex with men and gay men, and also of diverse sex orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics by strengthening prevention programming, and addressing stigma and inequalities.
Through our annual community summit last year, preparing Asia 2025, making prevention choice a reality, EPCO convened nearly 100 community leaders, governments, and partners to develop a roadmap to scale up prep, both oral and injectable at the country level.
This meeting was a follow up from our seminar and groundbreaking community led Summit in 2015, that was ten years ago.
Investment in community led prevention programs is underfunded.
Coverage of oral prevention needs to be scaled up, and that's what we're calling for all member states to do so.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, representative of OPCOM.
I now give the word to medical impact.
Distinguished Chairs, Excellency, colleagues.
45 years ago, the first reported cases of AIDS we gathered at the moment of uncertainty and opportunity.
The world did not reach the 2025 targets.
Funding is declining.
Conflicts are increasing, and discussions are underway about the future parts of global health architecture.
Yet, despite all of this, I remain optimistic because in the history of HIV has taught us anything.
It is that some of humanity's greatest public achievements emerged during moments when success seems unlikely.
The HIV response transformed science.
It transformed public health, but perhaps most importantly, it transformed the relationship between institutions and communities.
For the first time on a global scale, people affected by a disease were not only consulted, they became leaders, they became advocates, they became implementers.
They became part of the response itself.
That lesson remains just as relevant today.
Whether we are discussing HIV, tuberculosis, pandemic preparedness, mental health, or future health emergencies, communities remain our greatest source of resilience.
As we move towards 2030 and beyond, institutions may evolve, mandates may change, and funding mechanisms may adapt.
But the principle that communities belong at the center of global health must remain unchanged.
In global health, we often celebrate new medicines, new diagnostics, and new technologies as innovations.
Yet one of the greatest innovations of the HIV response was recognizing communities not as beneficiaries, but as partners in shaping solutions because communities are not simply another stakeholder.
It is it's Thank you very much for the remarks.
We have heard the last intervention from the floor and we're going to come back quickly to our panelists.
Unfortunately, we do have less time, so I'm going to ask my fellow panelists to be a little bit succinct and to try to give closing remarks in 1 minute or less.
Let's start with you, Jeremy.
Sure.
Thanks, Erika.
Two things stood out the most in terms of all the sharing.
I think one is in terms of the progress, our collective role as community and also the government and also the indispensable role of community throughout the decades in the HIV response.
But also there is quite a fair bit discussion in terms of not losing the gain, in terms of co morbidity, mental health, SIHR and et cetera But among all the gains, again, we need to remind ourselves on the investment we have made on community leadership and community system.
We have been reaping the benefit of having them as the frontliner, as a peer educator, as a leader, as the advocate, and in local community and also the national response.
I may end quickly, but in order to keep that momentum, we need to stop criminalizing and silencing the very community at the center of this response.
Thank you very much, Jeremy.
Hello.
Kate, My takeaway is that communist leadership and integrative services are a social and gender justice imperative and a reaffirmation of our human rights.
It's an opportunity for us to bridge access gaps because they are rooted in lived realities designed by people who know those realities best.
We don't need more empowerment.
We need platforms for leadership and opportunities to lead and co together.
Finally, is we have succeeded so far because we have continued to recognize and centralize the transformative role of communities at the center of the response.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Kate, doctor Dianne.
I The message today is very clear, communities are important.
They need to shape the agenda, but member state as important for the support they give.
Let us protect the human right and the dignity for every person everywhere because public health means taking care of everyone and human right means leaving no one behind.
Let's run an integrated health system that brings together HIV, sexual, rot health, gender based violence services, and primary health care so that no one is forced to choose between essential services.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, doctor Keels.
Thank you for this fruitful discussion and for the opportunity to present the German position.
For Germany, community leadership is a key priority in our HIV response.
We have seen that empowering civil society and communities and ensuring their meaningful participation is key to reach sustainable and effective solutions.
Looking ahead, I hope that we as a member states will renew our collective commitments and strengthen our cooperation to achieve our shared goal to end HIV AIDS.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Now, I was given the huge task to close and provide a summary and I would do a disservice if I even attempt because so much rich discussions and input has been given.
But instead, I want to share with you how a transgender woman who used to work in the streets of Talpan in Mexico City engaging in sex work to survive is sitting here today at the United Nations moderating a table because that will give you an insight of what community leadership and supporting community looks like.
I was diagnosed HIV positive in 1995.
I volunteered in a hospice where everything we can do is provide a dinant death at that time.
I started treatment in the year 2000 with whatever was available.
Any donation we received from the US, from Europe, we took.
When I moved back to Belize, to the country where I was born, we started organizing the national network of persons living with HIV.
There was a UNA office back in Belize and miss Melissa Sours used to take us on her truck, on a pickup truck, picking us up around so that we can meet and we can organize.
I started to get involved in the HIV response not only in the country and in the region.
I barely had anything.
My mother paid for the snacks for the meetings.
I used to go to an Internet cafe to be able to communicate and one day, miss Dolores Balderrao surprised me, the minister who sits in this room by giving me a laptop so I can work from home.
That regional work that helped me to get where I am today.
It opened the doors.
Through a grant in the region from the global phone, I did my viral low test for the first time and I found out that I was resistant to the treatment I was taking.
Then I was able to take the correct medication, exactly what I needed.
It is because of that grant.
I have sit in the PCB as delegate for Latin America, as delegate for Europe.
I am taking part in the working group on the further transition of UN AIDS.
I am moderating this panel today.
I am the Executive Director of a global trans organization, and none of that would have not been possible if all of you in this room would have not committed to the past political declarations that have put communities at the center.
So my call for you today is continue with that commitment.
Thank you very much.
We thank you we thank you for your active participation during the third thematic panel discussion.
The thematic panel discussion three is now concluded.
As announced in the program, the 91st plenary meeting will be held in the General Assembly Hall following the adjournment of this meeting.
This meeting is adjourned.