|TOP|The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland will be urged in May to continue with its HIV/AIDS work both in Scotland and abroad after the expiry of the Kirk’s mandate at the end of 2007.

The HIV/AIDS Project will make the petition in a special report to be presented to the General Assembly at its major annual gathering next month.

“The Church of Scotland HIV Project has achieved real gains in both Scotland and abroad. In Scotland it has helped kick-start important initiatives in supporting Africans living with HIV/AIDS.

“In Africa and in other countries overseas it has brought hope as well as financial support to projects that offer practical care and support to people living with and dying from AIDS,” said David Johnson, director of Edinburgh’s Waverley Care, in support of the Project’s call to the Assembly.

|QUOTE|He urged the Kirk, however, that more needed to be done to tackle the global spread of the virus.

“But the epidemic continues to grow and the work of this project continues to play a vital role in helping reduce the impact of such a devastating disease,” he said.

“The UN describes HIV/AIDS as the greatest public health issue the planet faces and we all need to stand our ground in the fight against it."

The intensification of the HIV epidemic in many parts of the world, including Scotland, will be demonstrated in the report, as well as the real progress that has been made through successful counter initiatives.

The report also goes on to highlight the improvement in access to anti-retroviral treatment over the past two years in low and middle-income countries, whilst outlining the enormous challenge that remains for HIV/AIDS sufferers in the world’s poorest countries. The report urges that while the gap will be closed over the coming years, the fight against AIDS needs rapid and sustained expansion in HIV prevention.

|AD|The fight against HIV and AIDS has been one of the key focuses for the outgoing Moderator of the General Assembly, the Rt Rev David Lacy, who followed up a conference with Scottish faith leaders in December 2005 on the issue with a conference of partner projects from around the world in Limuru, Kenya, in January this year.

Rev Lacy led delegates in the call for anti-retroviral drugs to be exempted from the existing framework of protecting intellectual property rights. They also called on governments to introduce more measures to protect the human rights of HIV and AIDS sufferers.

The HIV/AIDS Project concludes in its report that HIV and AIDS will continue “for at least another generation to be a defining issue for most nations on earth” and that extending the Project’s mandate beyond 2007 for at least another three years is necessary to guarantee that the Kirk plays a key role in the fight against the global pandemic.

Project co-ordinator, Nigel Pounde, says: “Responding to HIV and AIDS is part of the ongoing mission of the church in the 21st century. It’s nothing less than a gospel imperative. That’s how the Project Group sees its task and that’s the basis of our report to General Assembly.”