January 9: CCA Chairman Maurice Tempelsman on AIDS in Africa

UN Security Council's First-Ever Meeting Concerning a Health Issue: HIV and AIDS

Statement of Maurice Tempelsman Chair of the International Advisory Council of the Harvard AIDS Institute and Chairman of the Corporate Council on Africa

The Harvard AIDS Institute, based at the Harvard School of Public Health, has been a longtime leader in the international effort to halt the spread of HIV, particularly in Africa. As both the Chair of the International Advisory Council of the Harvard AIDS Institute and Chairman of the Corporate Council on Africa, I want to commend Vice President Gore and the United States Government for the new and far-reaching commitment to this effort that is being announced today.

It is especially fitting that the Vice President and U.S. Ambassador Holbrooke are exercising the U.S. Government's chairmanship this month of the United Nations Security Council to launch this initiative. I sharply disagree with those who question whether a health issue should, for the first time in history, be the subject of a Security Council discussion as well as those who are uncomfortable or uncertain about devoting public discussion, much less public resources, to this particular disease. Let us be very clear about this:

The HIV epidemic cannot be confined to, or conquered by, any one nation alone. It is not a matter "essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state" but a matter of grave concern to all states and the international community.

In recent years, the Security Council has been frequently and justifiably concerned about the "scourge of war" that has afflicted so much of Central, Western, and Southern Africa. But the scourge of AIDS in Africa during this same period has been even more deadly, killing even more people, and wiping out even more communities. I will be discussing with members of the Corporate Council on Africa ways by which we can follow up and facilitate the Vice President's initiative.

The Preamble to the UN Charter calls for the employment of international machinery not only for the maintenance of international peace and security but also for the promotion of social progress and better standards of life for all peoples. No single social problem in the world today, particularly in Africa, has brought more sorrow and suffering to more men, women, and children than has the plague that we call AIDS. Unless the death rate from AIDS among Africa's working age population can be dramatically reduced, how can any efforts by the United Nations or others to encourage economic development in Africa succeed? Unless the transmission of this virus from pregnant women to unborn children can be halted, who can talk of hope or opportunity for Africa? Unless the governments of Africa can obtain significant outside help to supplement their valiant struggle against this dreadful epidemic, when can we expect them to address their massive problems of debt, poverty, and instability?

No early or easy answer is in sight; but those of us associated with Harvard AIDS Institute do not despair. In Botswana, Senegal, and elsewhere in Africa, we have seen the heartening progress made possible by the doctors, medications, and efforts we have provided. We have seen that low-cost methods can prevent transmission of HIV from mothers to their infants. We have also seen that international partnerships can accomplish more and yield broader solutions than efforts from within a single country. That is why the Vice President's leadership on this issue today is so important. To prevent millions more deaths from AIDS, to stop the tragic transmission of this terrible virus to unborn children, to find a vaccine that can be economically and efficiently made available to all the people of Africa and of the world is not impossible. But there has been a shortage of political will, a willingness to recognize this crisis at the highest levels, to coordinate all the various efforts to end it, and to confront it openly and frankly, with full consideration for the many sensitivities involved. The Vice President has done that today; and for this he deserves the thanks of every concerned person, corporation and government.