Former President Mr. Festus G. Mogae to the XVIII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2010) in Vienna, Austria – 18 - 23 July 2010

source: Republic of Botswana TAUTONA TIMES of 8/8/2010
The Electronic Press Circular of the Office of the President
“Democracy, Development, Dignity, Discipline and Delivery”


C13) 14/7/10: Former President Mr. Festus G. Mogae to the XVIII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2010) in Vienna, Austria – 18 - 23 July 2010

The Excellency the Former President, Mr. Festus G. Mogae, will travel to Vienna, Austria this Saturday to attend the XVIII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2010) at the invitation of Roche – a pharmaceutical company which has a presence in southern Africa.

The International AIDS Conference is the largest international meeting on HIV, where every two years 25 000 participants representing all stakeholders in the global response to HIV meet to assess progress and identify future priorities.
AIDS 2010, which is the eighteenth in this series of international AIDS conferences, is organised by the International AIDS Society (IAS) in partnership with government, scientific and civil society partners in Austria and international partners from civil society and the United Nations. IAS, which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, is the world’s leading independent association of HIV professionals.

The Former President will participate at a Roche Satellite symposium on ‘Scaling Up Access for Treatment and Monitoring – What will it take to Deliver?’ on Tuesday 20 July 2010. He will speak on ‘The Challenges, Successes and Failures of the Botswana HIV Epidemic Response’.

The following day, Wednesday 21st July, he will attend and make informal remarks at the launching of the Global Commission on HIV Prevention. Thursday 22nd July he will participate at a session titled ‘Leaders against Criminalization of Sex Work, Sodomy, Use and Possession of Drugs and HIV Transmission’.

He will make a statement on reasons why criminalization of HIV transmission is bad public policy, and how countries can be persuaded to limit the use of criminal law to cases of intentional transmission of HIV and otherwise focus on effective public health and human rights strategies.

While in Vienna Mr Mogae will chair a meeting of the Champions for an HIV-Free Generation and collaborating partners such as the World Bank, Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation, UNICEF, UNAIDS, SADC, WHO and PEPFAR.

He is expected to arrive back home on Sunday 25 July 2010.