World AIDS Day, 2012

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 8909 of November 29, 2012

World AIDS Day, 2012

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

On World AIDS Day, more than 30 years after the first
cases of this tragic illness were reported, we join the
global community once more in standing with the
millions of people who live with HIV/AIDS worldwide. We
also recommit to preventing the spread of this disease,
fighting the stigma associated with infection, and
ending this pandemic once and for all.

In 2010, my Administration released the National HIV/
AIDS Strategy, our Nation's first comprehensive plan to
fight the domestic epidemic. The Strategy aims to
reduce new infections, increase access to care, reduce
health disparities, and achieve a more coordinated
national response to HIV/AIDS here in the United
States. To meet these goals, we are advancing HIV/AIDS
education; connecting stakeholders throughout the
public, private, and non-profit sectors; and investing
in promising research that can improve clinical
outcomes and reduce the risk of transmission. Moving
forward, we must continue to focus on populations with
the highest HIV disparities--including gay men, and
African American and Latino communities--and scale up
effective, evidence-based interventions to prevent and
treat HIV. We are also implementing the Affordable Care
Act, which has expanded access to HIV testing and will
ensure that all Americans, including those living with
HIV/AIDS, have access to health insurance beginning in
2014.

These actions are bringing us closer to an AIDS-free
generation at home and abroad--a goal that, while
ambitious, is within sight. Through the President's
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), we are on
track to meet the HIV prevention and treatment targets
I set last year. We are working with partners at home
and abroad to reduce new infections in adults, help
people with HIV/AIDS live longer, prevent mother-to-
child transmission, and support the global effort to
eliminate new infections in children by 2015. And
thanks to bipartisan action to lift the entry ban on
persons living with HIV, we were proud to welcome
leaders from around the world to the 19th International
AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C.

Creating an AIDS-free generation is a shared
responsibility. It requires commitment from partner
countries, coupled with support from donors, civil
society, people living with HIV, faith-based
organizations, the private sector, foundations, and
multilateral institutions. We stand at a tipping point
in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and working together, we
can realize our historic opportunity to bring that
fight to an end.

Today, we reflect on the strides we have taken toward
overcoming HIV/AIDS, honor those who have made our
progress possible, and keep in our thoughts all those
who have known the devastating consequences of this
illness. The road toward an AIDS-free generation is
long--but as we mark this important observance, let us
also remember that if we move forward every day with
the same passion, persistence, and drive that has
brought us this far, we can reach our goal. We can beat
this disease. On World AIDS Day, in memory of those no
longer with us and in solidarity with all who carry on
the fight, let us pledge to make that vision a reality.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution

and the laws of the United States do hereby proclaim
December 1, 2012, as World AIDS Day. I urge the
Governors of the States and the Commonwealth of Puerto
Rico, officials of the other territories subject to the
jurisdiction of the United States, and the American
people to join me in appropriate activities to remember
those who have lost their lives to AIDS and to provide
support and comfort to those living with this disease.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-ninth day of November, in the year of our Lord
two thousand twelve, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
seventh.