Civil society statements of priorities for the 2026 United Nations High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS

AIDS is not over, and the world has failed to meet the 2025 targets of the 2021 Political Declaration. At the end of 2024, 9.2 million people could not access HIV treatment; there were 630,000 AIDS-related deaths (two times the 2025 target); and 1.3 million people acquired HIV (3.5 times the 2025 target).¹ These are the direct results of political decisions, structural inequities, criminalization of the populations most affected by HIV and chronic underfunding and declining international solidarity. UNAIDS estimates that roughly US$21.9 billion per year in low- and middle-income countries will be needed through 2030 to stay on track to end AIDS as a public health threat. The path to ending AIDS remains achievable but only if governments and institutions confront inequalities and injustices that block access to services, invest in community-led, gender-transformative and human-rights-based responses and act with the urgency that this epidemic demands. Despite the progress, civil society and communities living with and affected by HIV will not accept complacency.

We will continue to hold political leaders accountable until every person, everywhere, can access the services, rights and dignity they deserve. We call for the 2026 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS to reaffirm commitments made in all previous Political Declarations adopted by the General Assembly, including 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2021 as well as other global health Political Declarations, such as Universal Health Coverage, Tuberculosis, Non-communicable Diseases and Pandemic Preparedness, and International Conferences, such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action and the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development. We also call for a Political Declaration that explicitly aligns with the strategic areas and targets of the 2026–2031 Global AIDS Strategy and places human rights and the reduction of inequalities at its core. Anything less would set us on the path of failing to achieve the end of AIDS. It is not the time for fatigue, or for stepping back on the hard-won gains; it is time to stand strong, united, to realize the promise of ending AIDS.

This statement builds on the findings of country-, regional-, and global civil society consultations, as well as global and regional civil society statements, conducted in preparation for the 2026 United Nations High-Level Meeting (HLM) on HIV and AIDS. Drawing on extensive input from people living with HIV, key population networks and civil society actors across all global regions, this statement presents the aspirations of communities and civil society for the 2026 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS and outlines strategic priorities for the next five years of the global HIV response.