III 113th CONGRESS 1st Session S. RES. 314 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES December 10, 2013 Mr. Coons (for himself and Mr. Isakson ) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations RESOLUTION Commemorating and supporting the goals of World AIDS Day.

Whereas an estimated 35,000,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS in 2013; Whereas Target 6a of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals is to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015; Whereas the 2001 United Nations Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS Global mobilized global attention and commitment to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and set out a series of national targets and global actions to reverse the epidemic; Whereas the 2011 United Nations Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS provided an updated framework for intensified efforts to eliminate HIV and AIDS, including redoubling efforts to achieve by 2015 universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support, and to eliminate gender inequalities and gender-based abuse and violence and increase the capacity of women and adolescent girls to protect themselves from the risk of HIV infection; Whereas the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was launched in 2002 and, as of November 2013, supported programs in more than 140 countries that provided antiretroviral therapy to 6,100,000 people living with HIV/AIDS and antiretrovirals to 2,100,000 pregnant women to prevent transmission of HIV/AIDS to their babies; Whereas the United States is the largest donor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Whereas, for every dollar contributed to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria by the United States, an additional $2 is leveraged from other donors; Whereas the United States hosted the Global Fund’s Fourth Voluntary Replenishment Conference on December 2–3, 2013; Whereas the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), introduced by President George W. Bush in 2003, remains the largest commitment in history by any nation to combat a single disease; Whereas, as of the end of September 2012, PEPFAR supported treatment for 5,100,000 people, up from 1,700,000 in 2008, and in 2012, PEPFAR supported provision of antiretroviral drugs to 750,000 pregnant women living with HIV to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to baby during birth; Whereas PEPFAR directly supported HIV testing and counseling for more than 46,500,000 people in fiscal year 2012; Whereas considerable progress has been made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, with total new HIV infections estimated at 2,300,000 in 2012, a 33-percent reduction since 2001; new HIV infections among children reduced to 260,000 in 2012, a reduction of 52 percent since 2001; and AIDS-related deaths reduced to 1,600,000 in 2012, a 30-percent reduction since 2005; Whereas increased access to antiretroviral drugs is the major contributor to the reduction in deaths from HIV/AIDS, and HIV treatment reinforces prevention because it reduces, by up to 96 percent, the chance the virus can be spread; Whereas the World Health Organization (WHO) has revised its guidelines for determining whether HIV positive individuals are eligible for treatment, thereby increasing the number of individuals eligible for treatment from about 15,000,000 to 28,000,000; Whereas 9,700,000 people in low- and middle-income countries had access to antiretroviral therapy by the end of 2012, an increase of nearly 20 percent in a year; Whereas an estimated 50 percent of those living with HIV do not know their status, according to a 2012 UNAIDS report; Whereas sub-Saharan Africa remains the epicenter of the epidemic, accounting for 1,200,000 of the 1,600,000 deaths from HIV/AIDS; Whereas stigma, gender inequality, and lack of respect for the rights of HIV positive individuals remain significant barriers to access to services for those most at risk of HIV infection; Whereas President Barack Obama voiced commitment to realizing the promise of an AIDS-free generation and his belief that the goal was within reach in his February 2013 State of the Union Address; Whereas the international community is united in pursuit of achieving the goal of an AIDS-free generation by 2015; Whereas international donor funding has held steady since 2008 and countries affected by the epidemic are increasingly taking responsibility for funding and sustaining programs in their countries, currently accounting for approximately 53 percent of global HIV/AIDS resources; Whereas December 1 of each year is internationally recognized as World AIDS Day; and Whereas, in 2013, World AIDS Day commemorations focused on: [g]etting to zero: zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination, zero AIDS-related deaths : Now, therefore, be it

That the Senate— (1) supports the goals and ideals of World AIDS Day, including getting to zero through zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination, and zero AIDS-related deaths; (2) applauds the goals and approaches for achieving an AIDS-free generation set forth in the PEPFAR Blueprint: Creating an AIDS-free Generation, as well as the targets set by United Nations member states in the 2011 United Nations Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS; (3) commends the dramatic progress in global AIDS programs supported through the efforts of PEPFAR, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and UNAIDS; (4) urges, in order to ensure that an AIDS-free generation is within reach, rapid action towards— (A) full implementation of the Global Plan Towards the Elimination of New HIV Infections Among Children by 2015 and Keeping Their Mothers Alive to build on progress made to date; and (B) further expansion and scale-up of antiretroviral treatment programs, including efforts to reduce disparities and improve access for children to life-saving medications; (5) calls for scaling up treatment to reach all individuals eligible for treatment under WHO guidelines; (6) calls for greater focus on HIV/AIDS vulnerabilities of women and girls, including more directed efforts to ensure that they are connected to the information, care, and treatment they require; (7) supports efforts to ensure inclusive access to programs and human rights protections for all those most at risk of HIV/AIDS and hardest to reach; (8) encourages additional private-public partnerships to research and develop better and more affordable tools for the diagnosis, treatment, vaccination, and cure of HIV; (9) supports continued leadership by the United States in bilateral, multilateral, and private sector efforts to fight HIV; (10) encourages and supports greater degrees of ownership and shared responsibility by developing countries in order to ensure sustainability of their domestic responses; and (11) encourages other members of the international community to sustain and scale up their support for and financial contributions to efforts around the world to combat HIV/AIDS.