G8 Summit: Leaders Need to Deliver on Promises

On the eve of the Hokkaido summit of the G8 countries, unions have called on the G8 leaders to deliver on past commitments including assistance pledges for Africa and holding firm on the 2010 goal of universal access to HIV prevention treatment, care and support.

Brussels, 3 July 2008: On the eve of the Hokkaido summit of the G8 countries, unions have called on the G8 leaders to deliver on past commitments including assistance pledges for Africa and holding firm on the 2010 goal of universal access to HIV prevention treatment, care and support. The international trade union movement, through its Global Unions AIDS Progamme, has joined with civil society groups in Africa and around the world as part of the World AIDS Campaign to ensure that universal access remains on the G8 agenda. A high-level G8 AIDS Mechanism needs to be established and the G8 must publish clear plans and timetables to deliver on the commitments which have already been made. Urgent action is needed to expand health and education services in developing countries, to equip them to deal effectively with the HIV-AIDS pandemic and other huge health challenges.

The ITUC and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC) are also insisting that the G8 governments live up to commitments they have made to promote the Decent Work Agenda of the International Labour Organisation, in a worsening economic climate where the explosion in food prices is pushing millions into renewed poverty, and where massive increases in fuel prices are threatening the global economy and making it increasingly difficult for hard-pressed households to make ends meet. Regulation of world financial markets is also urgently needed, as the growing financial crisis destroys more and more jobs.

The trade unions will also be closely watching the G8 deliberations on green jobs, just transition measures and greening of workplaces as central strategies to tackle climate change, following the recommendations of the G8 Niigata Employment Ministers Summit and the discussions on this issue with Japanese Prime Minister and Summit host Yasuo Fukuda in Tokyo in May.

The full trade union statement to the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit is available on the TUAC web-site

For a copy of the trade union/World AIDS Campaign statement, please click here 

The ITUC represents 168 million workers in 155 countries and territories and has 311 national affiliates.

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