The United States introduced a resolution in the United Nations Security Council yesterday on HIV/AIDS, calling for voluntary testing and AIDS education for UN peacekeepers, among other measures. This resolution is an important step in elevating the level of international attention paid to the scourge of HIV/AIDS, and builds upon Vice President Gore's address to the Security Council during the U.S. Presidency of the Council in January.

The unparalleled growth and spread of HIV/AIDS, the fact that it infects people in the most productive periods of their lives, and the tremendous growth of the disease in military forces around the world, present a clear challenge to international stability and security. On Sunday, July 9, the 13th International AIDS Conference will convene in Durban, South Africa; it is an especially propitious time for the Security Council once again to address the crisis of HIV/AIDS.

The U.S.-draft resolution asks the Secretary General to ensure the UN is doing all it can to educate and protect peacekeepers in the field from HIV/AIDS transmission. It urges members to institute voluntary and confidential testing and counseling for HIV/AIDS in the uniformed services, and in the civilian population. The resolution also urges countries to cooperate in educating their military forces on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. Finally, it asks the Secretary General to establish consultations and a database to track nations' HIV/AIDS policies in military forces around the world.

This resolution is another step forward in the relentless war that must be waged on all fronts against the spread of the global pandemic of HIV/AIDS, a war in which the United States has taken the lead. Current USG activities emphasize enhanced financial and political commitment, primary prevention, improving community and home-based care and treatment, caring for children affected by HIV/AIDS, and improvements in medical and sociological infrastructure.

Since 1986, USAID has initiated HIV/AIDS prevention programs in 32 countries. Over 850,000 people have been reached with these programs, and 40,000 people have been trained to support HIV/AIDS programs in their own countries. Thus far, USAID has dedicated over $1.2 billion to mitigate the epidemic worldwide. In FY 2000, the United States has contributed four times as much as the next largest donor.

During the Security Council session on January 10 -- the first open Security Council session of the new Millennium and the first to discuss a health issue -- Vice President Gore outlined the United States government's enhanced global HIV/AIDS effort launched in 1999, for which Congress appropriated a $100 million increase in our global HIV/AIDS program. The United States' FY2000 global HIV/AIDS prevention and care program is $225 million, nearly two-thirds of which is devoted to Africa. The FY2001 budget allocation of $325 million, excluding research, will be targeted worldwide to prevention, basic care and treatment, support for orphans, and health infrastructure development. Moreover, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations who introduced the resolution, told the Security Council yesterday that this year's Department of Defense appropriations bill also includes $10 million for work with foreign militaries or the United Nations to work on preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS in military forces worldwide.