United Nations
General Assembly
A/RES/58/236
Distr.: General
25 February 2004
Fifty-eighth session
Agenda item 47
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 23 December 2003
[without reference to a Main Committee (A/58/L.54)]
58/236. Follow-up to the outcome of the twenty-sixth special
session: implementation of the Declaration of
Commitment on HIV/AIDS
The General Assembly,
Recalling the goals and targets set forth in the Declaration of Commitment on
HIV/AIDS 1 adopted by the General Assembly at its twenty-sixth special session, in
2001, and the HIV/AIDS-related goals contained in the United Nations Millennium
Declaration of 2000, 2
Reaffirming the commitment made by all States at the twenty-sixth special
session of the General Assembly,
Noting with profound concern that 42 million people worldwide are living with
HIV/AIDS, that the HIV/AIDS pandemic claimed 3.1 million lives in 2002 and to
date has orphaned 14 million children,
Noting with grave concern that the majority of new HIV infections occur
among young people and that women and girls are disproportionately affected by
the pandemic,
Noting that the unequal legal and social status of women heightens their
vulnerability to HIV,
Expressing serious concern about the continued global spread of HIV/AIDS,
which exacerbates poverty and poses a major threat to economic and social
development and to food security in heavily affected regions, while recognizing that
poverty, underdevelopment and illiteracy are among the principal contributing
factors to the spread of the disease,
Noting that the epidemic affects every region and, while sub-Saharan Africa
remains worst affected, serious epidemics are present or emerging in the Caribbean,
Eastern Europe and Asia and the Pacific,
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1
2
03 50868
Resolution S-26/2, annex.
See resolution 55/2.