The International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission is concerned about the United Nations General Assembly’s Special Session on AIDS scheduled for June 25-27.
“The General Assembly has already urged ‘civil society’ to participate in the special session,” the group said. “However, their documents define civil society to include not only people living with HIV/AIDS, people affected by the epidemic, grassroots groups, and non-governmental organizations-;but also ‘the business sector, including pharmaceutical companies.’
“This is an unprecedented and dangerous redefinition of ‘civil society’-;a term which has traditionally encompassed voluntary and not-for-profit organizations, but not the corporate sector,” IGLHRC said. “Do the rich and resourced share an equal playing field with the poor and sick in ‘civil society’? … Or will it be a giant cocktail party for the drug industry?”
Contact Karyn Kaplan, (212) 216-1256; karyn@iglhrc.org;