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A MESSAGE FROM
THE COMMUNITY PLANNING COMMITTEE CHAIR

On behalf of the Community Planning Committee, I would like to welcome you to the preparations for Geneva 98, with this first edition of our community newsletter Le Pont.

We are committed to including the perspectives and views of a broad range of community representatives in the planning for the 12^th World AIDS Conference, and to promote full participation by the community sector in the sessions and deliberations of the Conference.

As Chair of the Community Planning Committee, I feel privileged to have this opportunity to communicate with the HIV/AIDS community worldwide and I hope that it will help our work be useful to all of you in preparing for, and getting through, the 12^th World AIDS Conference.

A welcome to the Geneva Conference would not be complete without a bridge. Nowadays, Geneva’s historic bridges across the river Rhone may be less of a vital economic link but they are still the best place for visitors to admire the lake, the mountains and, of course, the famous Jet d’Eau. Le Pont is one of the mechanisms we plan to use to help Geneva 98 "bridge the gap" between North and South, East and West, Community and Science, Research and Action.

Please join us in making this Conference relevant to your Community’s needs. You can provide input to the Community Programme planning process by:

• Sending information to the Secretariat c/o the Community Liaison Officer

• Continuing your visit on our website

• Contacting key correspondents for your region

We look forward to hearing from you.

Robin Gorna
Community Planning Committee Chair

The 12^th World AIDS Conference will be the first international conference on AIDS to implement the « Geneva Principle » of partnership between Community and Science. The groundwork for this began during previous World AIDS Conferences; Geneva 1998 has formalised this commitment to mutual support and transparency.

The 12^th World AIDS Conference has chosen « Bridging the Gap » as its main theme. In our lives, our work and our fight against the pandemic, we in the HIV/AIDS Community have encountered many gaps. Human rights abuses, the rift between Science and Community or research and action are some of the more blatant inequalities we have to face. On a global scale, the greatest gap is probably the one between countries whose economies allow a relatively easy access to treatment of HIV and other countries where there are painfully few resources to offer the same level of treatment.

Community Aspects are described on page 2 of Le Pont. Community participants will also have a number of possibilities to improve access to the Scientific Aspects of the Conference.

Orientation Sessions will take place on Sunday June 28^th (Registration day). They will be helpful in providing information and guidance through the Conference schedule to participants, especially those who are attending an international AIDS conference for the first time.

Over the course of the four main Conference days, there will be four daily plenary sessions. Some of the world’s leading medical, social and political authorities will meet to speak on the different gaps that need to be closed in the fight against the AIDS pandemic. A number of Bridging Sessions will explore ways of bridging the gaps between scientists, policy makers and the HIV/AIDS communities on a range of important scientific and social issues, some of which will also be covered in the Scientific Tracks.

The four Scientific Tracks will also offer delegates more targeted forms of presentation: Oral Abstract Sessions, Grand Round Sessions and Track Symposia. The four tracks are:

1. Basic Science
2. Clinical Science and Care
3. Epidemiology, Prevention and Public Health
4. Social and Behavioural Science

Research results will be summarised and synthetised in the form of Posters. On the final day, each Scientific Track will offer a number of Rapporteur Sessions to highlight the strong points of its activities during the Conference week.

When we come together in Geneva, it will be for an event of great scientific and human importance. It will be up to us to put all the different options of Geneva 98, both Scientific and Community, to the best possible use for our constituencies and ourselves.

General registration for Geneva 98 is done by contacting

Congrex Sweden AB
AIDS 98
P.O. Box 5619
Linnégatan 89A
SE-114 86 Stockholm
Sweden

Phone: +46 8 459 6600
Fax: +46 8 661 8155

E-mail: aids98registration@congrex.se; aids98@congrex.se

THE GENEVA PRINCIPLE ensures, for the first time in the history of international AIDS conferences, that both scientific and community representatives have equal say in the format and content of the Conference programme.

The Community Liaison Officer, Christopher Park, can be reached at
The 12^th World AIDS Conference
94, rue des Eaux-Vives
1207 Geneva
Switzerland

Tel : +41 22 737 33 44
Fax : +41 22 700 33 11
e-mail : park@aids98.ch

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