Topic: Expedient eradication of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) Relevance to council and ASEAN: a.

AIDS is undoubtedly one of the most controversial issues and diseases plaguing Mankind. No official cure has been found thus far, but measures have been implemented to reduce the case. As the social and humanitarian council, we are focusing on problems which affect the quality of life and the dimensions of human development such as life expectancy literacy rate and poverty incidence. AIDS tends to plague the poor and the uneducated and there are approximately 1.6 million people living with AIDS according to UNAIDS estimates. This shows the pertinence of AIDS in ASEAN. ASEAN consisting of countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos have significantly lower nominal gross domestic products compared to the rest of the ASEAN countries, hence technical and financial support is clearly an issue and less attention will be spanned across the issue of health and comfort. b. There are current works in progress proposed by ASEAN to combat AIDS, and there has undoubtedly been a decline in the vulnerability of AIDS, but the potential for AIDS to spread rapidly still exists due to the continued presence of key high-risk behaviours. These includes: the possibility of men having multiple sex partners with low condom usage, continued social stigmatization and discrimination against people living with AIDS, increased mobility of the people, cross-border, hence increasing the chances of AIDS through drugs use or sexual risks. As such, there are many aspects (as listed above) countries can participate in to further improve the existing measures, and to propose new solutions as well. Topic Content: 1. What is this issue about? The social and economic impact of the disease is intensified by the fact that AIDS kills primarily young and middle-aged adults during their peak productive and reproductive years. At the macro level, an effect of this nature on the workforce can impact the economies of entire countries. At the micro level, businesses will feel the impact of HIV/AIDS most clearly through their workforce, with direct consequences for a company's bottom line. These include increased expenditures on medical and health insurance costs, funeral costs and death benefits, as well as recruitment and training needs due to lost personnel. As the issue of AIDS plague poor ASEAN countries severely, all countries can actively participate in the discussion on how : i. Improvements can be made for the existing solutions proposed by the ASEAN community under the ASEAN HIV/AIDS Work Plan ii. New solutions can be proposed to help reduce the risk of the spreading of AIDS and to reduce social issues of stigmatization and mobile communities

iii. Encourage richer ASEAN countries to help the poorer countries by introducing practical aspects of education, technological services and financial assistance etc. 2. History/Past events that culminated in or are related to this issues a. The AIDS threat was first addressed as a regional concern at the 4th ASEAN Summit held in 1992 when member countries agreed to make a coordinated effort to curb the spread of the HIB/AIDS. Hence the taskforce for AIDS was developed. (ATFOA) b. ATFOA proposed the first regional Programme on HIV/AIDS, which include collaboration with non-health sectors such as labour and education identifying population movements, multi-sectoral collaboration on youth interventions, assessing family and community support systems, improving HIV surveillance, and involving Islamic religious leaders. An ASEAN AIDS Information and Research Reference Network was also established to share information and experiences. c. However, several issues arose which have been addressed or recitifed in the second work programme. Theses include the mobilizing of resources, focus on transboundary issues, greater involvement of NGOs and civil society. d. Subsequently, ratifications were required to keep up with time and the needs of the respective countries. Hence, delegates are highly encouraged to criticize the existing HIV/AIDS work plan and make necessary changes to further improve the proposal. 3. Policies put in place in relation to the issue a. In ASEAN the policies put in place are: i. ASEAN HIV/AIDS Work Plan Programme (AWP1,2,3,4) ii. ASEAN Task Force on AIDS (ATFOA) iii. http://www.aseansec.org/26122.htm iv. http://www.junima.org/news_documents/Recommendatio nsMSD230209Final_000.pdf 4. Precedents of successful resolution a. Discusses about these three aspects: i. Health ii. Financial/Technological assistance iii. Social issues such as mobile communities and discrimination b. Critical evaluation of the existing ASEAN HIV/AIDS work plan , and suggestions for improvements to be made.