Promises in AIDS Fight Not Met

Focusing on Africa, former UN envoy Stephen Lewis expresses amazement at the passivity of the international community as the HIV/AIDS epidemic traumatizes women, creates orphans, and continues on its decades-long path of devastation. Listen to a Podcast of his speech.

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Duration: 41:44

As politicians from wealthy nations recycle broken promises, the worldwide pandemic that "has taken 25 million lives and has 40 million people in its grip" continues apace, lamented Stephen Lewis, former United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, before an audience of more than 100 at UCLA on May 18, 2007.

Lewis linked the pandemic to issues of gender equality and social justice, particularly in Africa.

"It's terribly important to recognize that sexual violence is in significant measure driving the pandemic," he said.

Lewis is Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He is also a senior advisor to the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York.

The conference, Global Dimensions of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic, was sponsored by six UCLA units: the International Institute, the Latin American Institute, the African Studies Center, the Center for European and Eurasian Studies, the UCLA/Pacific AIDS Education and Training Center, and the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.

Published: Tuesday, May 22, 2007