Ahead of the UN General Assembly 2021 High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS (HLM), GNP+ and Aidsfonds, acting in their capacity as co-chairs of the HLM Multi Stakeholder Taskforce, worked with HIV Policy Lab (O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University) on a compendium of internationally language, to support member states and advocates around contentious negotiations over the HLM Outcome Document. The compendium focused mostly on the meaning and legitimacy of language vindicating the human rights of people living with HIV (PLHIV), key populations and others at risk of and affected by HIV. It included research and analysis on the authoritative use of such language in the past HLMs, at other meetings of the General Assembly, and in official publications of UN Agencies such as UNAIDS and WHO. Findings include past use and interpretation of language, established definitions, and scientific evidence for each of the topics. This provided a fully substantiated evidence-base for the internationally agreed meaning of key terminology and rights-based language. During the 2021 HLM, this reference source was used by government delegations in framing their arguments for retaining the ambitious rights-based language of the zero draft declaration and by advocates from civil society in lobbying their government delegations in favour of human rights positive positions. Building on this valuable work, the Love Alliance has contracted HIV Policy Gap to: To expand and deepen the existing compendium's content and scope, to include for each topic scientifically established and/or politically agreed-upon definitions; precedent language from resolutions, etc. and; empirical evidence on the benefits of rights-based, community-led, inclusive, equitable approaches vs. the harms of criminalising, stigmatising, and marginalising approaches. To continuously update the compendium, which will be a living reference source, reflecting new developments (e.g. political commitments) at global and regional levels. Depending on the availability of funding in 2023, provide strategic guidance for political advocacy to negotiators and advocates, through case studies with accounts from negotiators and civil society actors present during sessions in which key terms, concepts and language, as well as their definitions, were agreed upon or contested. These individual accounts will, with time, compose a guide as to what strategic advocacy strategies have and have not worked in defending evidence-based, participative, rights-based and non-punitive public health approaches to HIV prevention and global public health issues more generally. The compendium is the first resource of its kind in the AIDS movement. It will be released in June 2022, in an accessible and intuitive format that will be tagged and searchable enabling comparisons between sources, across different terms and over time. To mark its launch, the Love Alliance is organising a high-level event at the 24th International AIDS Conference Montreal with like-minded member states, civil society and other stakeholders aimed at discussing strategies and coordination to protecting and expand political commitments on rights-based responses to HIV-AIDS in the UN System.

• Presentations
• Session recording (English)