The UN Security Council has recognized the growing security threat of HIV/AIDS by adopting Resolution 1308, and by the UNAIDS Office of AIDS establishing the Office of AIDS Security and Humanitarian Resources in July 2000 (UNAIDSHIV/AIDS). A Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS was adopted in June 2001, and the UN AIDS Secretariat developed a two-year strategic workplan to strengthen leadership and partnerships on HIV/AIDS as a security issue. The UN AIDS Security and Humanitarian Response focuses on three main areas: international security, which includes international peacekeepers; national security, which includes uniformed services (armed forces, civil defense forces); and a humanitarian response which focuses on vulnerable persons affected by conflict, and on humanitarian workers.
The UNAIDS Office on AIDS, Security and Humanitarian Response works through national and regional counterparts and cosponsors and partners to integrate HIV/AIDS prevention and care in countries which have been affected by conflict and are subject to peacekeeping operations (UNAIDS-HIV/AIDS). It pays particular attention to uniformed services, vulnerable populations and humanitarian workers. The Government of Denmark showed support for the effort by offering the office free office space in recognition of the dimensions of the humanitarian effort in the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The Congo, in Central Africa, is a post-conflict country which went through its own war from 1997 to 1999, and also suffered because of the sustained conflict and economic and political instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo. During the course of the war, Congo went through massive population mobility, the diaspora, and Congo houses more than 110,000 refugees from neighboring countries (UNAIDS-Congo). Pointe Noire, the economic capital city, saw its population increase by one third due to a massive influx of internally displaced people. This massive increase in m...