Tomorrow, December 1st, is World AIDS Day (WAD). (Also on this date, in 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus.)
From the World AIDS Campaign website:
The theme for World AIDS Day 2006 is accountability.
The theme of accountability was developed by the World AIDS Campaign support team based on their ongoing work around World AIDS Day, and based on the outcomes of the London HIV and AIDS Campaigning and Advocacy meeting in February 2005. A number of lessons have been learnt from previous work on World AIDS Day, and far more energy is being invested early in the year to make World AIDS Day 2006 a success. The most significant aspect of this World AIDS Day is the degree to which it has been based around the inputs of a wide range of civil society partners.
from a press release:
In 2000, heads of state made a promise to halt and begin to reverse the spread of AIDS by 2015.
New reports by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO) indicate that, as of 2006, the epidemic continues to spread in every region of the world. By now more than 65 million people have been infected with HIV and well over 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981, 2.9 million in 2006 alone. At this rate, the WHO predicts that in the next 25 years another 117 million people will die, making AIDS the third leading cause of death worldwide.
The promise made in 2000 as part of the Millennium Development Goals has been followed by many other targets and commitments over the past six years.
With “accountability†the theme of this World AIDS Day on 1 December, campaigners across the globe are calling leaders to account not just for good intentions, but for action to make those promises a reality.
link to complete press release
Further links:
WAD Campaign events (USA events start on about “page 11”)
World AIDS Day.org (UK)
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
Wikipedia: World AIDS Day | UNAIDS