XVIII International AIDS Conference and Vienna Declaration
July 30, 2010
Every two years, the International AIDS Conference brings together thousands of people including advocates, policy makers, scientists, academics and people living with HIV/AIDS, in an effort to raise awareness about the progress being made toward eradicating the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, as well as the challenges the world continues to face in attempting to curb the spread of the virus. From July 18th- 23rd, 2010, Vienna, Austria, was host to the XVIII International AIDS Conference, entitled, “Rights Here, Right Now”. The location for this year’s conference was intended to raise awareness about the high rates of HIV infection among injection drug users (IDUs) in Eastern Europe. In keeping with this theme, the Vienna Declaration was developed, a statement advocating that drug policies should be shaped based on proven scientific evidence, rather than political ideology. Many countries continue to criminalize drug users, despite the fact that scientific evidence clearly shows that penal measures for this marginalized group of people serve only to fuel increases in HIV infection rates. The Vienna Declaration thus calls on governments and policy makers to adopt harm-reduction measures, such as needle-exchange programs, as well as decriminalizing drug use, as a means of beginning to deter the spread of HIV among injection drug users.
For more information about the Conference, please visit the XVIII International AIDS Conference website.
For further information and to sign the Vienna Declaration, please visit the Vienna Declaration website.
For more information about the Conference, please visit the XVIII International AIDS Conference website.
For further information and to sign the Vienna Declaration, please visit the Vienna Declaration website.
