March 15, 2005
Prime Minster Tony Blair
President George W. Bush
President Jacques Chirac
Prime Minister Paul Martin
President Junichiro Koizumi
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
The AIDS crisis in Africa is the greatest public health and human rights disaster of our time. 6500 Africans alone die unnecessary deaths from HIVÑbecause they do not have access to life sustaining treatment. The National Intelligence Council estimates that unless there is a massive scale up in the response from governments, there will be 100 million infections in just five years.
American activists are calling on you, the G7 Heads of State, to do more than simply put Africa on the agenda of the 2005 G7 meeting. You must make several basic commitments—as early as the Development Ministers meeting March 17-18 in Derbyshire, England—in order to begin to reverse the suffering and destabilization caused by the AIDS crisis. We, representatives of AIDS activist, social justice, student, human rights, faith based and other national and international organizations including Africa Action, African Services Committee, ACT UP Philadelphia, ACT UP New York, Student Global AIDS Campaign, Health GAP, American Medical Students Association, Jubilee USA, Project TEACH, Community Living Room, Minute By Minute, and 50 Years is Enough demand that you:
CANCEL THE DEBT, 100 PER CENT: Immediately commit to 100% cancellation of the debts owed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank for all impoverished countries, without harmful or externally imposed economic conditions. Limited relief within the confines of the flawed HIPC process is not sufficient. The debts should be cancelled using the resources of the IMF and the World Bank, and must be additional to donor funding commitments. Although the recent February G7 Finance Ministers meeting resulted in a political signal that "up to 100%" cancellation was possible, many G7 countries still support harmful conditionalities, drastic restrictions on the number of countries who could benefit from cancellation, or only support limited relief from debt service payment, rather than a full cancellation of debt stock.
FULLY FUND THE GLOBAL FUND: UNAIDS estimates that globally, $20 billion will need to be spent fighting AIDS by 2007. The UK's Commission for Africa Report, released March 11 2005 recommended that G7 countries fully fund the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the most effective international mechanism for fighting these three infectious diseases of poverty. We applaud this recommendation, and urge you immediately to pay your countries' fair share of the Global Fund's need, not only this year and in 2006, but also pledge into the future, in order to signal to grant recipients that this mechanism is sustainable and reliable. Even though G7 countries represent the lion's share of the world economy, most have consistently snubbed the Global Fund. 2005 is a "make-or-break" year for the Global Fund, as it has to pay for grant renewals as well as new commitments, effectively doubling the cost of doing business. Shamefully, virtually no donor country is paying its fair share.
COMMIT TO UNIVERSAL TREATMENT ACCESS: The World Health Organization has acknowledged that lack of access to HIV treatment in developing countries is a public health emergency. But the WHO "3 by 5" project to expand treatment access by 2005 to 3 million people reports a $2 billion funding gap. Treatment scale up—saving lives—should be a fundamental part of the G7 countries' response to the AIDS crisis. The G7 countries must commit to funding and supporting efforts to increase treatment coverage to at least 6 million by 2007, and commit to an urgent timeline for achieving universal treatment access thereafter.
For more information, contact: Asia Russell, Health GAP: +1 267 475 2645/asia@healthgap.org
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