GENEVA, 26 September 2019—UNAIDS is deeply saddened by the death of the former President of France, Jacques Chirac, an early champion of the AIDS response.
Speaking in 1997 at the opening ceremony of the International Conference on AIDS in Africa (ICASA) in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, he denounced a response to HIV that was on two tracks, where HIV treatment was only available in the Global North but people living with HIV were disproportionally living in the Global South.
In 1997, he announced the creation of the International Therapeutic Solidarity Fund, which funded access to antiretroviral therapy, including in the least developed countries. The fund was a precursor to the establishment in 2002 of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In 2006, Mr Chirac established the solidarity tax on aeroplane tickets, dubbed the Chirac Tax, which today is still an important source of financing for the AIDS response.
In 2008, after leaving the Presidency, he established the Fondation Chirac, which continues to work for access to health and quality medicines globally.
“It is thanks to leaders such as Jacques Chirac, who took responsibility and acted with principle, that today more than 23 million people globally have access to HIV treatment. I pay tribute to Mr Chirac’s leadership,” said Gunilla Carlsson, UNAIDS Executive Director, a.i.
UNAIDS
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
