Michel Kazatchkine – Special Adviser to UNAIDS on HIV, Tuberculosis and Hepatitis for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Michel Kazatchkine, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

The 41st meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) is taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 12 to 14 December.

At the opening, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé gave an update on the progress made in the AIDS response and outlined the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. He stressed that despite the progress made AIDS is not yet over and outlined the five key challenges that remain unaddressed—reaching the unreached, protecting young women and girls, ensuring that men have access to services, focusing on the regions that are lagging behind and addressing stigma, discrimination and criminalization.

During the opening session, Mr Sidibé also announced that Michel Kazatchkine will be the Special Adviser to UNAIDS on HIV, Tuberculosis and Hepatitis for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The thematic segment of the PCB meeting will take place on the last day and will focus on accelerating action to end discrimination in health-care settings. The participants will review the evidence of the effects of discrimination in health-care settings on efforts to reach the global HIV prevention and treatment targets and will identify programmatic actions to end such discrimination.

The 41th meeting of the PCB is being chaired by Ghana, with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland acting as Vice-Chair and Japan as Rapporteur.

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