Remarks by H.E. Annalena Baerbock
President of the 80th Session of the Â鶹APP General Assembly
at the Multi-Stakeholders Interactive Hearing in preparation for the High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS
Thursday, 14 May 2026
Conference Room 2, Â鶹APP
[As Delivered]
Mrs. Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director,
Excellencies,
Dear Co-Chair,
Dear stakeholders and guests,
Thank you for joining this Multi-Stakeholder Interactive Hearing in preparation for the High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS.
Frankly speaking, I was really looking forward to this hearing¡ not only because we are living in challenging times and it¡¯s important to come together, but also because we need positive examples of success, of the Â鶹APP, and your work, as part of the UN family, has been, for the last four decades a true success story¡ and we should share that even more.
It has been a success story for people affected, but also for the UN, and for multilateralism as a whole.
Allow me to get straight to the point: not since the start of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s has the progress and outlook been so promising¡ and much of that, dear friends, is because of you and your colleagues around the world.
I remember very well, debates in my own country¡ I was still a kid then, in the 80¡¯s.
The headlines everywhere were horrible¡ infused with fear and ignorance.
They talked about the, and I quote, ¡®gay plague¡¯, about ¡®certain death¡¯, about the need to isolate people. People like us.
It was brave people like you, who helped turn the tide on stigmatization.
I still haven¡¯t forgotten the huge campaigns in subways when I was a child, not really understanding but seeing the big posters, calling on people to ¡®give AIDS no chance¡¯. It was one of the most successful public campaigns ever in Germany, educating people, proactively, on what was then taboo topics around health and also around reproductive rights, and bringing it mainstream to the benefit, also, of women.
The HIV/AIDS crisis needed people like you. Because as I said, it was not a given, it was brave to do these campaigns. It needed advocates marching against stigmatization, scientists working to better understand the virus, and civil society groups promoting access to prevention and treatment.
And it needed the UN as a platform to bring Member States together, to address a collective challenge, that, despite headlines, was never confined to any one group or any nation.
Today, HIV is no longer a ¡°death sentence¡±, as it was called at the time, but a manageable condition for millions of people.
- Scientific breakthroughs, including antiretroviral therapy, alongside a coordinated global response, have reshaped the trajectory of the epidemic.
- New HIV infections have been reduced by 61% since their peak in the late 1990s.
- More than 31.6 million people are now on life-saving treatment.
- AIDS-related deaths have fallen by 70% since their peak in 2004.
- And seven countries in Sub-Saharan Africa – Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe ¨C once ¡®ground zero¡¯ for the AIDS crisis, have met the 95 ¨C 95 ¨C 95 targets, which call for
- 95% of all people living with HIV to know their HIV status,
- 95% of all people who know their status to receive treatment,
- and 95% of all people treated to have a suppressed viral load by 2025.
These results, dear colleagues, are remarkable and deeply commendable.
But, as we also know, we are not out of the woods yet.
As with any effort, we must go the last mile, the last mile together: to reach, to educate, and to empower.
Nearly 40 million people continue to live with HIV globally, with 1.3 million new infections each year.
Stigma and discrimination against high-risk populations still persist, with at least 156 countries criminalizing, still, HIV exposure and 169 countries criminalizing some or all aspects of sex work.
And access to prevention and treatment remains deeply uneven.
While a cure for HIV may not yet be within reach, preventive tools and treatments offer the next best thing: a pathway to halting transmission entirely and ensuring full, healthy lives for those living with HIV.
In a world where such innovations exist ¡ª and where resources remain abundant ¡ª there is no reason not to take this fight to the next level, again together.
The upcoming High-Level Meeting must therefore not only review progress but reinvigorate momentum. We need sustained financing, scaled-up access to prevention, and stronger partnerships capable of delivering results on the ground.
As stakeholders, your efforts are needed now more than ever: to maintain pressure and to help ensure that the decisions taken here reach the communities you serve.
This is particularly vital at a time when overseas development assistance is being cut, when the multilateral system is under strain, and when issues such as HIV/AIDS risk falling down the list of global priorities as the world grapples with crisis upon crisis.
And I want to be clear, because I have heard the chatter, the ongoing UN reform efforts, including the UN80 Initiative, will in no way negatively impact these efforts.
Regardless of the future transition of UNAIDS, the work will and has to continue, data will and have to be preserved, and efforts will and have to continue without pause. These reforms are about delivering effectively ¨C and in full reflection of the context today¡ and in full reflection of the positive examples, you, your agencies, gave to the entire UN System, how to include the special experience of stakeholders and persons affected themselves, in the daily work you are doing.
So, let us draw inspiration from the Indonesian HIV Positive Network,
from the International Community of Women Living with HIV in Kenya,
from ACT UP here in the United States,
and from countless others across every Member State, who continue to ensure that this issue is neither ignored nor sidelined but truly becomes a success story for all.
Let us champion a strong Political Declaration at this High-Level Meeting, and I can assure you my full support.
I thank you.
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