Sustainable Development Goals: HIV Debate
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Lord Lexden
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Sustainable Development Goals: HIV
Lord Lexden Excerpts(9 years ago)
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Baroness Verma
I need to reassure noble Lords that there is no withdrawal of budget support. However, we do need to ensure that the support we are giving is to those people who are in most need and are unable to self-finance. The low-income, high-burden countries need our support the most but we continue to work in middle-income countries. So there is no withdrawal—just smarter, more focused delivery of services.
Lord Lexden (Con)
Is not the criminalisation of homosexuality simply incompatible with the Commonwealth charter, which all its members have signed up to?
Baroness Verma
My noble friend is of course right: universal rights must apply to all people. That is one of the key messages we must keep reinforcing, whether at Commonwealth level or outside the Commonwealth.