UNITED NATIONS, May 31 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on member states to combat HIV/AIDS infection among young women who suffer double the rate of young men.
He made the plea Wednesday at the opening of the U.N. General Assembly's special high-level meeting on AIDS marking five years since the world body's declaration against the disease in 2001.
Most countries have failed to meet the targets they pledged to achieve in their declaration at the assembly's special session on AIDS in 2001, including making sure that young people have an accurate understanding of HIV and how the virus can infect them, Annan said.
"The world has been unconscionably slow in meeting one of the most vital aspects of the struggle -- measures to fight the spread of AIDS among women and girls," he said, recalling that in the declaration, countries pledged to adopt national strategies to promote women's rights, protect women and girls from all forms of discrimination, and empower them to protect themselves against HIV.
"Yet today, infections among women are increasing in every part of the world, particularly among young women," the secretary-general said.
Globally, more than twice as many young women are infected as young men.
Annan welcomed Khensani Mavasa of South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign as "the first person living with HIV to address the General Assembly." Other infected persons may have spoken to the body, but none was identified as such.
A dozen heads of State, more than 100 cabinet ministers and some 1,000 representatives of civil society and the private sector were expected to attend the meeting.
