News
World AIDS Day Observed from New York to London
- 30 November 2001
World AIDS Day was marked across the globe on 30 November 2001. In New York, it was commemorated with a town hall meeting at United Nations Headquarters, with such participants as the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Thoraya Obaid; a UNAIDS/UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador and Face to Face Spokesperson, Wendy Fitzwilliam; and several other celebrities, such as the movie star, Danny Glover.
Ms. Fitzwilliam Photo: Abubakar Dungus
After taking part in the Town Hall meeting, Ms. Fitzwilliam recorded a radio programme on the prevention of HIV/AIDS for broadcast in the Caribbean. She asked political leaders in her home region to speak more openly on the infection to slow its spread and called for more concrete public and private sector support for various HIV prevention initiatives in the region. She taped the programme for United Nations radio.
Ms. Devine (in goggles) next to the Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lorraine Melvin, and other borough officials. Photo: Tower Hamlets, London
Meanwhile, in London's large and multi-ethnic borough of Tower Hamlets, another UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador, Magenta Devine, talked to youth on the theme, "I Care...Do you?" She asked her listeners to continue working together to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Individual action, she added, could go far in slowing infection rates and breaking the silence about the epidemic.
At events all over the world, United Nations officials and spokespersons, such as Ms. Obaid, Ms. Fitzwilliam and Ms. Devine, stressed the need to refocus attention on the global fight against the epidemic. Their activities were based on the United Nations Secretary-General's Call to Action and the Declaration of Commitment adopted by the General Assembly's special session on HIV/AIDS, held in June 2001.
