Urgent, United Nations AIDS Session, Deadline February 1, 2001, Email Input Any Time

Civil society throughout the world (including nonprofits and businesses, especially in developing countries) has been invited to participate in a United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV and AIDS, June 25-27, 2001. If your organization wants to send an accredited representative, then unfortunately the deadline to apply to be accredited is February 1 -- and the announcement and instructions went out less than two weeks before this deadline. But anybody can participate online, through an email discussion group which you can join at any time.

• For more information about the special session, including background, and how to apply to be accredited, see http://www.unaids.org; also see http://www.hdnet.org (Health and Development Networks, which "has been commissioned by UNAIDS to help ensure that NGO and community voices are channeled, in a transparent way, into the UN General Assembly special session on HIV/AIDS").

• Another possible way to participate in person is through the official delegation of your government (which might not be subject to the February 1 deadline).

• Also, some nonprofit organizations already have official status at the United Nations, and your group might be able to work through them.
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• To join the online discussion group at any time, send an email to: break-the-silence@hdnet.org.

Comment

We have heard unofficially that although the United Nations session itself is in June, the content is likely to be mostly set by then, so the most important times for participation will be earlier, especially February 26 - March 2, and April 23-27, which are informal consultations for government delegates; these meetings will take place in New York. Accredited (and possibly other) civil society organizations might or might not be able to address the delegates at these consultations. Whether or not your organization applies by the deadline and is accredited, if you have information or issues you want considered at this session, it makes sense to submit them to the online discussion group as soon as possible, so that they can be considered at the February 26 - March 2 consultation.

The online discussion group may be the most important way for civil society to participate. It is certainly the most accessible.

ISSN # 1052-4207

Copyright 2001 by John S. James. Permission granted for noncommercial reproduction, provided that our address and phone number are included if more than short quotations are used.

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