HIV/AIDS Language Compendium
About the Compendium
In June 2021, the United Nations General Assembly met for its fourth high-level meeting (HLM) on HIV and AIDS to review five years of both success and failure since its previous meeting and set the course of the global response to HIV for the next five years. Departing from precedents and settled positions of previous HLMs and other meetings of the General Assembly, a small group of states sought to remove language on rights, decriminalisation and harm reduction from the draft Political Declaration. Although the attempt was unsuccessful, this experience is emblematic of a larger threat to the rights-affirming and evidence-based foundations of the global HIV response.
The HIV Policy Lab developed the prototype of this Compendium during the 2021 HLM. As a fellow with the HIV Policy Lab, I led its extension and formalisation in 2022 and 2023 at the initiative of GNP+ and Aidsfonds, the NGO co-conveners for the HLM. The Compendium aims to assist delegations, civil society and others in framing arguments for protecting and advancing rights-affirming and evidence-based language.
The HIV Language Compendium does this by providing a curated compilation of internationally agreed language that provides precedents for the use, proper interpretation and significance of concepts and terms crucial for an evidence-based and rights-affirming response to HIV. The Compendium is a highly practical resource for those in the centre and on the sidelines of multilateral negotiations — diplomats, international civil servants, leaders from affected communities, and civil society advocates.
The Compendium was founded on research and analysis of Member State agreement on the use of key language in meetings of the General Assembly and other UN organs and governance bodies, as well as in the human rights system and the official publications of UN secretariats. These selections were then coded and categorised by topic (e.g. gender equality), source type (e.g. intergovernmental evidence), and utility (i.e. as evidence or precedent).
Although I left the HIV Policy Lab and Georgetown in 2023, the Compendium is still being updated and extended iteratively.
The Compendium was developed through an extended programme of consultation with Member States and civil society partners across 2022, and launched at the 24th International AIDS Conference in Montréal on 29 July 2022.