HIV Language Compendium consultations
The HIV/AIDS Language Compendium was developed through an extended programme of consultation with Member States and civil society partners. Juliette led the HIV Policy Lab’s organisation and facilitation of these consultations across 2022, presenting successive drafts of the Compendium, responding to questions and guiding discussion on both its substance and how it would be disseminated and used.
Bilateral consultations — May and June 2022
Bilateral consultations informing the development of the Compendium were convened with the Netherlands and Canada’s ministries of foreign affairs, UNAIDS, MSF and the Sexual Rights Initiative. These consultations shaped the scope, tone and use-cases of the Compendium, drawing particularly on the perspectives of Member States actively engaged in rights-affirming negotiations on HIV/AIDS at the UN.
Feedback and discussion consultations — 7–8 July 2022
The consultations sought feedback on the first draft of the HIV Language Compendium — on both its format and its substance — and suggestions for its dissemination and promotion. The consultations also had a coalition-building purpose, exploring how civil society could support like-minded UN Member States in developing joint strategies and coordination mechanisms to protect and advance rights-based responses to HIV/AIDS in the UN system. The consultations were held in two groups to include multiple time zones.
Participant organisations included GNP+, AidsFonds, NCYU, Coalition PLUS, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UNAIDS, the Prevention Access Campaign and the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society.
Related publication
The consultations culminated in the launch of the HIV/AIDS Language Compendium at the 24th International AIDS Conference in Montréal on 29 July 2022. The Compendium remains a living negotiating aid and advocacy tool — a curated compilation of internationally agreed language providing precedents for the proper use, interpretation and significance of concepts crucial to an evidence-based and rights-affirming HIV response.