In order to reverse the rate of HIV infection

This joint statement was read to
the UN General Assembly by Argentina’s Ambassador to the UN and was drafted by a number
of Member States, including Brazil, Croatia, France, Gabon, Japan, the Netherlands and Norway16.
This framework encompasses the work of numerous partners at many levels and in many contexts.
In order to reverse the rate of HIV infection among men who have sex with men and
transgender people, and to achieve a more effective AIDS response, the UN and other actors must
work more intensively together to devise and deliver more finely tuned and evidence-informed
interventions. Men who have sex with men and transgender people also have an essential role
to play in launching, sustaining and reinventing community and self-help responses, as well as
related cultural and political advocacy efforts. Other civil society actors are key allies, including,
for example, women’s rights groups, AIDS organizations, lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender
rights movements, human rights advocates and faith-based institutions with ethics of caring and
inclusion. Governments, too, are key partners. They have an obligation to respond in both public
health and human rights terms, with national governments playing key policy roles, and local
governments, such as municipalities, often being at the cutting edge of health service provision,
and often overseeing police and education services. Public and private donors must be convinced
to invest in effective and targeted action, based on the evidence of the significant role of these
populations in the HIV epidemic.