[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 93 (Thursday, July 11, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H4526-H4527]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




THE 14TH INTERNATIONAL AIDS CONFERENCE FOR KNOWLEDGE AND COMMITMENT TO 
                                 ACTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, this weekend in Barcelona, Spain, 15,000 people 
came together for the 14th International AIDS Conference for Knowledge 
and Commitment for Action.
  I had the privilege to participate in this very important conference 
and can say with certainty that while Congress and the administration 
are waking up to the desperate call of millions of individuals living 
with HIV and AIDS, and those yet to be born to this scourge, we are 
still not doing enough.
  Let me bring the Members up to date on this global pandemic. In 2001, 
there were 5 million new AIDS infections across the globe. Today there 
are 40 million people living with AIDS worldwide, and there are 14 
million AIDS orphans.
  In the United States, 950,000 have been diagnosed with AIDS. African 
Americans make up only 13 percent of the total United States 
population, but 54 percent of new infections and 82 percent of women 
who are newly infected with HIV are African American and Hispanic.
  In my district in Oakland, California, we declared a state of 
emergency in order to focus attention on this tragic, tragic crisis. 
The latest statistics indicate that the number of new infections is 
slowing in Alameda County; yet we must do more.

                              {time}  1645

  AIDS is a disease that affects the entire human family. It has 
impacted every corner of the Earth. Therefore, we must discuss this 
problem in a global context. We must address prevention, treatment, 
vaccines, access, and funding in a comprehensive fashion.
  At the conference, I heard repeated over and over again that while 
developing a vaccine we must help developing countries develop the 
required heath care delivery systems and infrastructure to ensure equal 
access. We cannot repeat the pattern we have seen on the African 
continent where access to anti-retroviral drugs and AIDS treatment are 
far from equal. Currently in Africa more than 28 million people are 
living with HIV and AIDS. However, only 30,000 are in treatment. In 
comparison to the United States, nearly 100 percent of people who are 
infected are in treatment and they need it and they receive it.
  At the conference we again engaged the ongoing debate over prevention 
versus treatment. Most concluded, and rightfully so, that it must not 
be an either/or dilemma. Working to prevent the mother-to-child 
transmission must not exclude keeping the mother, father and child 
alive. Once again, there is no way we should buy into an either/or 
strategy.
  While I am pleased that President Bush has acknowledged the need for 
drugs to reduce mother-to-child transmissions, that is only one 
component of what should be a multifaceted approach to tackling this 
pandemic. In Barcelona at a remarkable AIDS march for life, thousands 
came together to call for treatment now and presented the Barcelona 
Declaration, which was read into the opening session of the conference.
  This declaration called for securing donations of $10 billion per 
year for global AIDS; antiretroviral treatment for at least 2 million 
people with HIV/AIDS in the developing world by 2004; lower affordable 
drug prices and universal access to generics in the developing world; 
and a new global partnership between government and NGOs.
  Mr. Speaker, the entire Barcelona Declaration is as follows:

                         Barcelona Declaration


                     $10 billion for aids treatment

            2 million people worldwide in treatment by 2004

       Whereas every single day AIDS claims 8,500 lives, or the 
     equivalent of three World Trade Center disasters daily;
       Whereas by December 2001, 40 million people were living 
     with HIV/AIDS, and by 2005 an estimated 100 million will be 
     infected;
       Whereas more than 40 million children--most of them in 
     developing nations--will be orphaned by AIDS by 2010;
       Whereas the World Health Organization this year has stated 
     that anti-retroviral treatment is medically essential and has 
     issued specific treatment guidelines, monitoring standards 
     and regimen recommendations;
       Whereas those on treatment represent less than 2% of all 
     those infected with HIV because such treatment is almost 
     completely unavailable in developing nations;
       Whereas over 500 non-governmental organizations globally 
     have endorsed the Barcelona March for Life, which demands 
     treatment access to at least 2 million individuals in the 
     developing world by the time of the 2004 International 
     Conference on AIDS in Bangkok;
       Whereas these organizations represent AIDS activists from 
     Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands, Australia, Europe, 
     Central and South America, and North America
       Therefore, we declare as activists pledged to life for all 
     persons with HIV/AIDS that we are committed to the following 
     goals:
       1. Securing donation of $10 billion dollars per year for 
     global AIDS;
       2. Antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for at least two million 
     people with HIV/AIDS in the developing world by the 2004 
     Bangkok AIDS conference;
       3. Lower, affordable ARV drug prices in the developed world 
     and universal access to generics in the developing world by 
     Bangkok, 2004; and
       4. A new global partnership between government and NGOs 
     recognizing the primary role of NGOs in the global fight 
     against AIDS.
       We call on the delegates of the Barcelona International 
     AIDS Conference to pledge themselves to these goals.

  Now, I must mention a very disappointing turn of events leading up to 
the Barcelona conference. Many African delegates, especially those 
living with HIV and AIDS, were singled out and denied visas by Spain 
for questionable reasons. Therefore, the conference did not benefit 
from the insights of those living with this disease at its epicenter in 
Africa. We lost the voices we heard at the 13th conference in Durban, 
South Africa, in 2000.
  In Barcelona we heard many strategies and staggering statistics of 
lives destroyed, but we also heard models of

[[Page H4527]]

hope. In Uganda, Thailand and Senegal, for example, strong national 
leadership partnered with community-wide response are reducing new HIV 
infections and AIDS diagnoses and focusing on treatment measures for 
their people.
  We must continue to support these efforts by increasing U.S. 
bilateral and multilateral funding for vital AIDS, tuberculosis and 
malaria programs. I am even more convinced that the United States must 
put at least, and this is a minimum, just at least $1 billion into the 
global trust fund for starters. Dr. Peter Piot, the director of UNAIDS, 
said that a $10 billion effort will only begin to make a dent in this 
crisis. We will never see a favorable result in a crisis of this 
magnitude if we continue to nickel and dime our efforts.
  I agree that we must streamline bureaucracies and facilitate better 
coordination, but that should happen while we ramp up our response. 
Together in a bipartisan effort we must now move forward with 
appropriate significant resources for this life-and-death effort. It is 
time to put our money where our mouth is.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) 
and his very diligent staff, and the ranking member, the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Lantos), and his staff, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. 
Leach) and Mary Andrus of his staff, and the gentlewoman from the 
Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen), the gentlewoman from California (Ms. 
Millender-McDonald), and Michael Riggs of my staff for making HIV/AIDS 
a priority of the Committee on International Relations.

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