G8 Working Group
The G8 summit in July 2006 renewed its commitment to tackle AIDS, along with tuberculosis and malaria. The G8 also promised to regularly review progress made by G8 nations on AIDS. Most significantly, the G8 committed to supporting current efforts for Universal access to treatment, care and prevention. The Global Unions Programme on AIDS, supported by the WAC is working with a broad alliance of partners to ensure the G8 keeps its promises on AIDS.
In December 2006, Global Unions re-launched their HIV/AIDS Campaign to convince heads of state attending June’s G8 summit in Germany to create a high-level G8 Working Group on HIV/AIDS, with technical support from such existing bodies such as UNAIDS and its co-sponsors.
These partners believe that AIDS should be on the G8 agenda annually. The G8 must be held accountable for its commitments on AIDS. This is particularly true in relation to international efforts for Universal access on AIDS treatment, care and prevention. This will require robust new surveillance and monitoring strategies, with strong technical support.
Nothing short of a built-in mechanism that regularly and systematically reviews progress on G8 commitments on AIDS will ensure that they become a reality. This could be through the establishment of a high-level permanent G8 working group – our preferred option – which creates an ongoing and coordinated entry point for advocacy on a variety of AIDS-related issues. Other alternatives include designating AIDS-related issues as a standing item on the G8 agenda.
Campaigners and advocates for a G8 Working Group are deliberately avoiding making specific formulations of what this working group could look like. Ultimately the G8 principals will decide what the mechanism will be and how its work can realistically contribute to the G8 process.
To read more about the G8 Working Group and G8 Accountability, click here.
The Global Unions are now asking that civil society partners work with them to build on last year’s work by organising activities or public events to highlight the delivery of a letter requesting support for a G8 working group to German embassies in their countries. To read about how you can get involved click here.
For the unions this work will come to a fore at the 2007 28 April “International Commemoration Day (ICD) for Dead and Injured Workers.” To read about what some unions around the world are already planning to do, click here.
Unions Call on German Minister’s Help For New G8 Working Group on AIDS
AIDS review failure by G8 fosters poverty and misery.
In the lead-up to the G8 Summit the Global Unions’ HIV/AIDS Committee Chair, Alan Leather, has replied to a letter from the German Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, Mrs. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, enlisting her help to get a Working Group for HIV/AIDS on the G8 agenda this June, and highlighting the opportunity to reverse the failure of previous years to follow up on Summit promises about AIDS.
African trade unions at UN CSD call for G8 AIDS working group
AIDS is Bad News for Sustainable Development
New York, Friday, 4 May:
In this update find:
* Unions ask CSD delegates for help in obtaining better G8 monitoring of AIDS
* AIDS undermines sustainable development, environment & public health
* German G8 Presidency hears from African countries
Trade Unions at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, meeting in New York, continue to press for the creation of a permanent high-level G8 working group on HIV/AIDS. Their message is that HIV is an issue than cannot be overlooked in any serious discussion about sustainable development, health and the environment. This why AIDS is an issue that labour continues to press in fora such as the CSD major groups, UNEP, WHA, the ILO conference as well as in its ongoing efforts on the MDGs and in multiple venues to influence industrial policy, trade and intellectual property agreements.
12th International Commemoration Day (ICD) For Dead and Injured Workers
ITUC - February, 2007: The General Secretary Guy Ryder of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has issued a request for trade unions throughout the world to prepare for the 12th International Commemoration Day (ICD) For Dead and Injured Workers on 28 April, 2007. Thematically, the 28 April ceremonies or events throughout the world should be made to reflect the overall orientation of the day, which normally begins by commemorating workers who have fallen ill, been injured or were killed over the last year and ends with a message of hope for life and the living.
April Priority: Lobby G8 Summit for Creation of High-Level Working Group on HIV/AIDS
For Workers' Memorial Day 2007, the ICEM has adopted a campaign encouraging affiliates to sign on to the global trade union lobby for a high-level G8 Working Group on HIV/AIDS as a major part of its comprehensive programme to combat the global pandemic.
Unions Deliver Letters to G8 Embassies
Below you will find examples of action from union members across the world who are delivering letters to their German Embassies requesting support for a G8 Working Group on AIDS.
Get Involved: Deliver AIDS Letter to German Embassies
Please see below letter about how you can get involved in G8 Working Group on HIV/AIDS Campaign.
Campaign to put AIDS permanently on the G8 agenda
World AIDS Campaign works with the Global Unions Programme on AIDS to ensure that the G8 keep its promises on AIDS. The G8 Summit in July 2006 renewed its commitment to tackle HIV/AIDS, along with tuberculosis and malaria. The G8 also promised to regularly review progress made by G8 nations on AIDS. Most significantly, the G8 committed to supporting current efforts for Universal Access to treatments, care and prevention. World AIDS Campaign (WAC) is campaigning with a broad alliance of partners to ensure the G8 keeps its promises on AIDS.