Key Advocates in the AIDS Debate

The UN General Assembly's special session June 25-27 will provide "a unique opportunity" for non-governmental organizations and other groups "to contribute to the global commitment in the fight against the epidemic and to make their voice heard among world leaders," the UN says.

Some of the key advocates in the effort:

Doctors Without Borders "delivers emergency aid to victims of armed conflict, epidemics, and natural and man-made disasters, and to others who lack health care due to social or geographical isolation." Each year, the group says, it sends more than 2,000 volunteer doctors, nurses, medical professionals, logistics experts, water/sanitation engineers, and administrators to help 15,000 locally hired staff provide medical aid in more than 80 countries.

South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign. Among TAC's top objectives: "Highlight disparities and problems in access to treatment, and campaign to have them eliminated"; and work for the elimination of problems within South Africa's health-care infrastructure.

Oxfam. The non-governmental organization, established during World War II as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, is "dedicated to finding lasting solutions to poverty and suffering around the world." Its campaigns include cutting drug costs, promoting fair trade and disaster relief.

The Health Gap Coalition says it focuses on "bridging the gap in access to medicines." It seeks relief from patent restrictions to allow medicines to be sold at a lower cost in poor countries.

The Global Treatment Access Campaign pushes for access to affordable AIDS drugs, debt reduction for poor countries and effective public health strategies. The coalition's members include ACT UP New York, the Treatment Action Campaign and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Campaign.

ACT UP describes itself as "a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis. We advise and inform. We demonstrate. We are not silent." Slogan: Silence=Death.