About the Campaign

The world must take urgent account of the specific impact of AIDS on children, or there will be no chance of meeting Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 6 – to halt and begin to reverse the spread of the disease by 2015. Failure to meet the goal on HIV and AIDS will adversely affect the world’s chances of progress on the other MDGs. The disease continues to frustrate efforts to reduce extreme poverty and hunger, to provide universal primary education, and to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health.

World leaders, from both industrialized and developing countries, have repeatedly made commitments to step up their efforts to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS. They are beginning to increase the political leadership and the resources needed to fight the disease. Significant progress is being made in charting the past and future course of the pandemic, in providing free antiretroviral treatment to those who need it, and in expanding the coverage of prevention services.

But children are still missing out.

In 2007

• 420,000 children were newly infected with HIV

• 290,000 children died of AIDS

• Children under 15 accounted for 2.1 million of the estimated 33.2 million people living with HIV

Millions of children, adolescents and young people in the path of the pandemic are at risk and in need of protection. AIDS is redefining the very meaning of childhood for millions, depriving children of many of their human rights – of the care, love and affection of their parents; of their teachers and other role models; of education and options for the future; of protection against exploitation and abuse.

The world must act now, urgently and decisively, to ensure that the next generation of children is AIDS-free.

The UNITE FOR CHILDREN UNITE AGAINST AIDS Campaign will

• Provide a child-focused framework for nationally owned programmes around the ‘Four Ps’, urgent imperatives that can make a real difference in the lives and life chances of children affected by HIV/AIDS.

  • Prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission
    By 2010, offer appropriate services to 80 per cent of women in need
    
  • Provide paediatric treatment
    By 2010, provide either antiretroviral treatment or cotrimoxazole, or both, to 80 per cent of children in need
    
  • Prevent infection among adolescents and young people
    By 2010, reduce the percentage of young people living with HIV by 25 per cent globally
    
  • Protect and support children affected by HIV/AIDS
    By 2010, reach 80 per cent of children most in need

• Provide a platform for child-focused advocacy on global AIDS issues such as

  • Mobilizing international resources to combat HIV/AIDS. This means not only a significant increase in official development assistance overall, but also a bigger proportion allocated to HIV and AIDS and, specifically, to protect, care for, support and provide treatment for children affected by the disease.
    
  • Supporting corporations as they develop socially responsible policies and programmes for workers, their children and communities.
    
  • Advocating for governments, donors and international and non-governmental organizations to stand by the commitment to come as close as possible to the goal of universal access to treatment by 2010; and supporting countries in accessing appropriate and affordable medicines, especially formulations and diagnostics adapted to the specific needs of children.
    
  • Campaigning for education and health services to be strengthened, and for governments and agencies to work towards the elimination of user fees for primary education and, where appropriate, health-care services.
    
  • Putting the protection, care, support and treatment of children, adolescents and young people at the centre of the HIV and AIDS agenda.

• Put the missing face of children affected by AIDS at the centre of the AIDS agenda and make sure that the voices of children and young people are heard on the issues that affect them.

Following the appeals made at the 2005 G-8 Summit, the 2005 World Summit, and other declarations and commitments on HIV and AIDS, UNICEF, as part of its work as a cosponsoring agency of UNAIDS, calls upon every part of global society to join in a campaign to support national efforts to ensure that this is the last generation of children that must bear the burden of AIDS.