In response to the growing threat of HIV/AIDS to security and political stability worldwide, UNAIDS has signed a Cooperation Framework with the International Crisis Group (ICG) in a move to strengthen leadership and build partnerships in the area of HIV/AIDS and security. The ICG is a private multinational organization committed to strengthening the capacity of the international community to anticipate, understand and act to prevent and contain conflict.

"We have seen that HIV/AIDS has devastated an entire generation in Sub-Saharan Africa, in some countries reaching nearly 40 per cent of the adult population,” said ICG President Gareth Evans. “Now we see a second wave of the pandemic affecting regional and global powers such as India, China and Russia. The international community must ask whether enough is being done to understand its potential impact on national and international stability and security."

The joint initiative focuses on national uniformed services, international peacekeeping operations, and conflict settings, the main issues of the UNAIDS Initiative on HIV/AIDS and Security.

"AIDS and global insecurity coexist in a vicious cycle,” said Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director. “Civil and international conflict help spread HIV as populations are destabilized and armies move across new territories. And AIDS contributes to national and international insecurity, from the high levels of HIV infection experienced among military personnel to the instability of societies whose future has been thrown into doubt."

The Cooperation Framework aims to establish close collaboration between UNAIDS and ICG to ensure quality research and advocacy on the security implications of HIV/AIDS at the global level and in key countries. The joint effort will focus on how HIV/AIDS prevention and care can be an incentive for conflict resolution and peace building in high-prevalence conflict areas. It will also seek to document worldwide effects of HIV/AIDS on peace and security.

ICG has recognized that HIV/AIDS has the potential to affect peoples, states and the international community in a similar fashion to more traditional forms of conflict. On the eve of the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, ICG published its report HIV/AIDS as a Security Issue with clear messages and recommendations for the international community, affected countries and the private sector. Since then, it has continued to examine this issue in a country context in Myanmar and in Central Asia.