AIDS Action Europe held the seat of Europe NGO Delegate on the Programme Coordinating Board of UNAIDS from 2016-2018. Our colleague, Ferenc Bagyinszky, represented AAE on the NGO Delegation: “My 3 years with the NGO Delegation was one of the most rewarding and challenging period of my life. It was not only the steepest learning curve in the field of global HIV politics but also gave me an opporunity to learn and gain a deeper understanding of the issues affecting people living with HIV and other key populations in the different regions. Although the issues and priorities might have differed, the roots of the problems such as criminalization and other punitive policies, lack of funding for communities and services and the lack of political will affect our global community regardless of our culture, gender, sexual orientation or colour of skin.
In the last 3 years, UNAIDS has faced 3 major crisises: a financial crisis in the middle of need for accelerating efforts to reach our targets; an identity crisis that helped us better understand the role of the Joint Programme and the need for a stronger UNAIDS; and finally the most recent one on sexual harassment, bullying and abuse of power that shook the institution and pushed it into a deeper crisis than ever. I am very proud of the new Delegation for issuing their statement regarding the current crisis that was debated in detail during the 43rd PCB meeting – December 11-13, 2018. As the Delegation states: “… we recognize with regret the profound negative impact of harassment, including sexual harassment, bullying, and abuse of power on the staff of the UNAIDS Secretariat and their ability to deliver on the critical mandate of the Joint Programme …” and addressing sexual harassment, bullying and abuse of power is key core business of any AIDS response as they are at the main drivers behind the HIV epidemic and need to be addressed if we want to end AIDS by 2030.
