Activities and Updates: HIV Language Compendium

In September 2023, the United Nations (UN) convened a high-level meeting dedicated to universal health coverage. This meeting was viewed as an "historic opportunity" to adopt action-oriented commitments and "accelerate progress towards the achievement of universal health coverage by 2030." It was expected that Member States would adopt new commitments building upon the political declaration on universal health coverage previously agreed upon in 2019 and various other UN resolutions.

  The Centre for Global Health Policy and Politics, operating under the umbrella of the HIV Language Compendium, undertook an analysis of the political commitments adopted by UN Member States. This analysis compared the commitments agreed upon this year with language already reflected in other UN resolutions. In a similar vein, analyses were conducted for the Tuberculosis (TB), and Pandemic Prevention Preparedness and Response (PPPR) political declarations.

Additionally, the HIV Language Compendium, which serves as a "curated compilation of internationally agreed-upon language that provides precedents for the use, proper interpretation, and significance of concepts and terms crucial for an evidence-based and rights-affirming response to HIV," was expanded to include additional terms and definitions. The goal was to provide a more user-friendly compendium that enhances the capacity of civil society and key populations to comprehend and challenge regressive language that may be adopted in political declarations.

 To demonstrate the utility of the compendium and disseminate the analyses of the Tuberculosis (TB), Universal Health Coverage (UHC), and Pandemic Prevention Preparedness and Response (PPPR) political declarations, a webinar titled "Where Might Falls Short of Right: The UN High-Level Draft Declarations and a Rights-based Framework for Health" was conducted on September 13th, just prior to the UN High-Level Meetings on TB, UHC, and PPPR. This event, jointly sponsored by the Love Alliance and the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, drew an impressive registration of over 140 individuals, with 70 actively participating. A detailed account of the webinar can be found in the Webinar Report.