What's World AIDS Day All About?

Tuesday December 1^st, 2009 marks the 21^st anniversary of World AIDS Day. AIDS Awareness Week takes place in the last week of November. Aboriginal AIDS Awareness Week starts on World AIDS Day and concludes on December 5^th.

The theme for World AIDS Day 2009 is Universal Access and Human Rights, to highlight and underscore the importance of understanding HIV and AIDS from a human rights perspective.

The campaign slogans for World AIDS Day 2009 are:

I am accepted
I am safe
I am getting treatment
I am well
I am living my rights
Everyone deserves to live their rights
Right to Live
Right to Health
Access for all to HIV prevention treatment care and support is a critical part of human rights

The first World AIDS Day was held in 1988 after the world’s health ministers met and agreed on the concept of the day as an opportunity for everyone to demonstrate the importance of AIDS and show solidarity for the cause. World AIDS Day is now internationally recognized as a day when individuals and organizations from around the world come together to bring attention to the global HIV and AIDS epidemic. World AIDS Day is an opportunity to take action on calling for universal treatment, care and support for people living with HIV and AIDS.

World AIDS Day was originally organized by UNAIDS, but in 2005 it handed over responsibility to an independent organization, the World AIDS Campaign.

Make your voice heard on World AIDS Day 2009 to raise further awareness in your community and across the world about the state of the pandemic and the critical next steps that must be taken to halt its spread.