By His Excellency Lambert Grijns – Ambassador for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and HIV/AIDS at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Would you have ever guessed that a Ministry of Foreign Affairs works on issues such as maternal mortality and sexuality education? I certainly did not when I applied for diplomatic service.
But whilst working as a diplomat in different countries in Asia, Sub-Sahara Africa and Latin America I came to understand how important it is that people, especially adolescents, can make informed decisions and have access to services when it comes to love, (sexual) relationships and pregnancy. So when I was asked to become the Ambassador for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and HIV/AIDS in 2013 I did not hesitate for a second.
In our Dutch SRHR policy we focus on youth, on access to information, commodities and services as well as the promotion of rights (including for sexual minorities). In order to progress on these four goals we work with a variety of different actors; multilateral organizations, governments, civil-society organizations, companies and faith-based organizations.
I think in this work it is crucial to recognize that there is no right or wrong. As a diplomat, I learned that to work effectively with others you have to be able to listen, to find a common language and to treat diverging views with respect. And to share what you are proud of: in my case the Dutch experiences with SRHR, resulting in one of the lowest rates of teenage pregnancies and abortions in the world.
Another success I would like to share with you is about the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam in 2018. The Netherlands won the bid for this great event, which will bring more than 20,000 people to the Netherlands to discuss the future of the AIDS epidemic, including world leaders, pop stars and VIPs. We need their, and our, prominent and collective attention to keep HIV/AIDS high on the international agenda. The conference is a platform and an instrument. It cements our political commitment to women and girls in Southern Africa, who are especially vulnerable to HIV. The same applies to the status of key populations, such as sexual minorities, who primarily live in middle-income countries.
The vulnerability of young girls and key populations has been on the Dutch agenda for some time. Most recently, during a high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS on April 9th, here in The Hague. Minister Ploumen for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation discussed strategy with UNAIDS, the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and Aids Funds, a prominent Dutch civil-society organization. Conclusions at the end of the day were ambivalent. Positive in the respect that the number of deaths has been greatly reduced, thanks to medication, education, testing and condom use. But also worrisome: still, every hour 30 people are newly infected with HIV, particularly teenage girls.
Even in the Netherlands we see 1100 new cases of HIV every year. And some countries, for example in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, even face an increase in new infections, especially among key populations. Worldwide, adolescents are the only group amongst whom AIDS-related deaths are not declining and just one in four infected children and adolescents under the age of 15 years has access to lifesaving antiretroviral treatment.
That is why it is so important that HIV/AIDS is kept high on the international agenda. If we want to bring a halt to new infections, we need strong political will and to work on a number of fronts simultaneously: treatment, care and prevention. This means making ARTs as affordable and widely available as possible and maintaining proper care for the people who have contracted HIV. But just as importantly, we should keep working on prevention. We cannot accept that people, especially young people, get sick- only to start treating them later in life.
So yes, there is still so much to be done. I invite all of you to join us at AIDS2018 in Amsterdam and see how we can move forward further, together. And to join us in our work as a Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
