AIDSVote.org is a candidate education and voter education project working to make sure candidates for public office know what it takes to end AIDS, and voters who care about ending AIDS know where the candidates stand on our issues.

The AIDSVote.org platform is a straightforward roadmap for our next President—it leads directly to the end of AIDS as a killer pandemic in America and around the world. We’ve got a ten-point domestic AIDS plan and a ten-point global AIDS plan with clear recommendations for public and private action to save lives, prevent new infections, and address the social conditions that drive the pandemic.

The AIDSVote.org has already been endorsed by dozens of the nation’s leading AIDS groups, and by leading service and advocacy organizations in key early-primary states. We’re working closely with the 08 Stop AIDS campaign (www.08stopaids.org) to highlight global and domestic AIDS issues in public events with the candidates. We’ll be holding national conference calls during 2008 to explain how nonprofit groups can do election-year advocacy that’s safe, legal and effective. And we’ll be helping voters who care about HIV/AIDS understand the positions of candidates on life-and-death domestic and global AIDS issues.

Please take the time to visit AIDSVote.org, endorse the platform, and spread this message widely. This year World AIDS Day is on a Saturday – next year World AIDS Day will really be on Election Day.

Check out the AIDSVote website here: www.aidsvote.org

Full details on the platform are at www.aidsvote.org/platform.

Endorse the platform here: Link

World AIDS Day, observed December 1 each year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection. AIDS has killed more than 25 million people, with an estimated 38.6 million people living with HIV, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history. Despite recent, improved access to antiretroviral treatment and care in many regions of the world, the AIDS epidemic claimed an estimated 3.1 million (between 2.8 and 3.6 million) lives in 2005 of which, more than half a million (570,000) were children.

The concept of a World AIDS Day originated at the 1988 World Summit of Ministers of Health on Programmes for AIDS Prevention. Since then, it has been taken up by governments, international organizations and charities around the world.

From its inception until 2004, UNAIDS spearheaded the World AIDS Day campaign, choosing annual themes in consultation with other global health organizations. In 2005 this responsibility was turned over to World AIDS Campaign (WAC), who chose Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise as the main theme for World AIDS Day observences through 2010, with more specific sub-taglines chosen annually. This theme is not specific to World AIDS Day, but is used year-round in WAC’s efforts to highlight HIV/AIDS awareness within the context of other major global events including the G8 Summit. World AIDS Campaign also conducts “in-country” campaigns throughout the world, like the Student Stop AIDS Campaign, an infection-awareness campaign targeting young people throughout the UK.
World AIDS Day banner, European Commission building, Brussels
World AIDS Day banner, European Commission building, Brussels
A 67 m long “condom” on the Obelisk of Buenos Aires, Argentina, part of an awareness campaign for the 2005 World AIDS Day
A 67 m long “condom” on the Obelisk of Buenos Aires, Argentina, part of an awareness campaign for the 2005 World AIDS Day

It is common to hold memorials to honor persons who have died from HIV/AIDS on this day. Government and health officials also observe, often with speeches or forums on the AIDS topics. Since 1995 the President of the United States has made an official proclamation on World AIDS Day. Governments of other nations have followed suit and issued similar announcements.