Youth Caucus Goes Beyond Mandated UN Consensus on HIV/AIDS Issues

United Methodist Seminar intern, Parvina Najibulla, 23, participated in the non-governmental group, representing United Methodist Women and the denomination. Together the youth caucus wrote and presented a position paper, stating that more urgency needs to be given to the HIV/AIDS crisis and its effects on youth.

"One-sixth of the world’s population are youth, but 50 percent of the newly infected people are within the 15-24 age group. Youth have the highest infection rate," said Ms. Najibulla. "Together and with the consensus of the young people, we wrote a position paper calling on people and governments to recognize the plight of the young and to take action."

The position paper keeps the idea of human rights central to all parts of the document, according to Ms. Najibulla. Yet, its uniqueness comes from the ability of the youth to state issues that the United Nations Special Assembly could not. Some of their suggestions included:

• Youth have a right to HIV/AIDS information, sex education, and treatment options.
• There are groups of people who are vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. The UN Special Assembly would not recognize these groups. The youth caucus named the groups and want special education and treatment for them.
• Many times when orphaned because of HIV/AIDS, older children inherit responsibility for the family, but they do not inherit the family assets. Their rights to education and inheritance need to be protected.
• In many parts of Africa, teachers and health workers are contracting HIV/AIDS at a rapid rates. Governments need to recognize this pandemic as a serious threat to workforces and economic development, and they need to take definitive action on this. Canceling the debt of nations with high HIV prevalence rates would be a start.
• Young people remain at the front-lines in this pandemic and agree to leadership responsibilities within their communities. Yet, they demand participation in government decision-making around the HIV/AIDS pandemic, because decisions affect them.

Because the United Nations needed consensus from all the countries involved in the Special Assembly, many of these aspects and detailed descriptions were omitted. Youth took the lead, speaking out on the importance of these areas.

"Young people are very much involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS and our position paper represents this," said Ms. Najibulla. "Young people around the world are fighting the epidemic as educators, caregivers and advocates."

"The youth caucus understood the need to be supportive of this effort, while affirming local cultures and traditions," said Ms. Najibulla. "The goal for us was to break the stigma of HIV/AIDS, not different religions or cultures. I really began to see the difference of advocating for people as opposed to advocating with people around the issue."

United Methodist Women is a one-million member organization whose purpose is to foster spiritual growth, develop leaders and advocate for justice. Members raise more than $20 million a year for programs and projects related to women, children and youth in the United States and in more than 100 countries around the world.

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