A High-Level Meeting on AIDS, "Uniting the world against AIDS" took place from 31st May to 2nd June at UN headquarters New York, attended by heads of state and government, and leaders from all over the world.

The leaders declared that any legal, regulatory, trade and other barriers that block access to prevention, treatment, care and support must be overcome, and that adequate resources must be committed to promote gender equality and empowerment of women. They also agreed to scale up effective and comprehensive prevention efforts and "…do everything necessary to ensure access to life-saving drugs and prevention tools."

Furthermore, they emphasized "…the need to strengthen policy and program linkages and coordination between HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health…" as well as national development plans.

With the feminization of HIVAIDS, world leaders pledged to eliminate gender inequalities and abuse, and to increase the capacity of women and girls to protect themselves from HIV by providing women with health care, including sexual and reproductive health.

Going further, the heads of state and government pledged to ensure that women could exercise their right to control over matters related to their sexuality in order to increase their ability to protect themselves from HIV infection, free of coercion, discrimination and violence, and they committed to "take all necessary measures to create an enabling environment for the empowerment of women and to strengthen their economic independence."

The leaders also resolved to address rising rates of HIV infection among young people through comprehensive, evidence-based prevention strategies, evidence-based youth-specific HIV education, and the provision of youth-friendly health services.

The full 53-paragraph declaration can be found here.