The United Nations General Assembly Special Session on AIDS opens today in New York. Outside the UN, protesters are gathering at 12:30 p.m. to demand that the leaders of rich countries and the most affected countries listen to people most directly affected by HIV and fulfill their commitments to fighting AIDS. On Tuesday UNAIDS officials announced that the total number of HIV cases worldwide has topped 38 million but that the epidemic has begun to slow. Last year 4.1 million people became infected with HIV. An estimated 2.8 million people infected with HIV died last year.

• Kofi Annan: “We are unfortunately nowhere near getting on top of the epidemic and the problem is still very, very, very serious and we need to continue to be vigilant and to redouble our efforts, particularly with young people and of course also press for the protection of women. Today AIDS has a women’s’ face, more than fifty percent of those being infected are women and young people.”

Peter Piot, the executive director of UNAIDS added that the United Nations must focus its efforts on Africa.

• Peter Piot: “The whole region still suffers from a legacy from the Apartheid days from a division of labor that meant that men come from other countries, from rural areas, live in hostels, in compounds with each other and in other words, families are broken up. Secondly, the fundamental driver of the epidemic is that of gender inequality. Inequality between men and women and the fact that women are not in control of their sexuality.”