(from June 10th, by Ricardo Baruch)

The High Level Meeting closes today – What’s next for young people? 
After 3 days of panels and discussions, today the High Level Meeting comes to an 
end. 10 years ago, leaders of the world endorsed the Declaration of Commitment 
and today, a Political Declaration that is far from ideal will be endorsed by 
member states. The document was ready on the first day of the HLM so the 3 days 
of the meeting focused more on having high level discussions and panels to 
discuss issues related to funding, new interventions, leadership among other 
issues. 

The Youth panel took place yesterday with the participation of Dr. Babatunde 
Osetimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, the Crown Princess  Mette-Marit, Erik 
Solheim, the Minister of Development from Norway, the Vice-minister of Health 
from Germany  and Michel Sidibé, ED of UNAIDS. Young activists such as Pablo 
Torres from Dance4Life, Gaj Gurung from Youth LEAD and Princess Nuru from Uganda 
Young Positives were able to make their points related to human rights, scaling 
up prevention and paying attention to most-at-risk-populations. The Ministers 
from Norway and Germany committed to keep supporting efforts led by young people 
and the UN officials also did the same. 

This afternoon young delegates will be meeting for the last time during the HLM 
to debrief and talk about next steps. Representatives from organizations such as 
ITPC, Youth Coalition, the HIV Young Leaders Fund, GYCA, Advocates for Youth, 
GNP+, the World AIDS Campaign, IPPF-WHR and Youth RISE have been meeting 
throughout the week to ensure that there is a feasible follow up plan that can 
be used at the national level to ensure that governments, agencies and youth 
organizations are hold accountable to their promises. 

The week comes to an end with a global call for Zero new infections, Zero deaths 
related to AIDS and Zero discrimination but also with a call for renewed 
commitment and leadership on the response to the epidemic. Don’t forget to visit 
www.unaids.org for more information, videos, pictures and documents. 

GYCA team