GEORGE STRAIT: The closing ceremony of the 14th International AIDS Conference was dominated by two former Presidents. First, Bill Clinton.

WILLIAM CLINTON: I wanted most of all to thank all of you in this room for your heroic efforts. Yes, 25 million people have died, but if it hadn’t been for you and your comrades, the number might be 50 million. If it hadn’t been for you and your comrades, the number of infected people might already be a hundred million. But, you are not devoting your lives to make this epidemic a little less bad. You want to stop it, reverse it, and end it. [applause] It is, as has already been said, a threat, not simply to our health, but to our economic well-being and to our very security. A hundred million AIDS cases means more terror, more mercenaries, more war, destruction and the failure of fragile democracies. We cannot lose the war on AIDS and win our battles to reduce poverty, promote civility, advance democracy, and increase peace and prosperity. That is why I said it was a security threat when I was President. That is why every citizen on our small planet has a personal interest in ending AIDS. There is something for everyone to do. First, the wealthy nations should determine what each share of the 10 billion dollars a year that the Secretary General of the United Nations and the experts have said is required, to spend. We should figure out what our share is and we should pay it. [applause] For America, it means increasing the role of young people and women in these deliberations because they are being disproportionately affected by the epidemic today. [applause] Here in Barcelona, the youth force and the Bill of Rights for Women, which have been circulated, are examples of what we will have to have more of if citizens around the world are to take ownership of their part of this fight. It means leaders everywhere, in and out of government, must move aggressively to end stigma and denial, to stop the stereotyping where it still exists. There are still people who view AIDS as something that affects only people who are different. Yes, people with HIV and AIDS are sex workers and drug addicts, poor and often gay, and if you live in a place with a low rate of infection most of them are from another country. Maybe another race. But they’re also our friends and our neighbors. [applause] But, make no mistake about it, there is still a lot of stereotyping. There is still an astonishing amount of denial, and there is still even persecution of people who are working on the front line for this battle. Just last week human rights watch published a report of unconceivable police abuse of front-line AIDS prevention workers in India. Of peer educators facing violence and harassment for training sex workers in prevention. Of an AIDS worker who had hot chili powder rubbed in her eyes. And, when the workers complained, the local police chief said, “Who cares. They weren’t normal citizens who had the right to complain.” In another case, AIDS workers reaching out to men who have sex with other men, were detained by police for 47 days, part of the time without access to drinkable water or sanitation facilities. One was told that happened to him because he was trying to destroy his country by promoting homosexuality. Government must stop this, and not just in India, but everywhere. Last year, my friend Sandy Thurman who headed our AIDS effort when I was President, asked me to Co-Chair the International AIDS Trust along with my friend President Mandella. Nelson Mandela changed history with his ability to see beyond difference and move beyond vengeance. Only very rarely does the world love and respect someone as much as we all love and respect him. [applause] Few leaders in the world have the power he has to help people be better than they normally are. He has lived a few years, but I know no one who is younger at heart. Like the aging Ulysses in Lord Tennyson’s great poem, he has left the governing of South Africa, the children of his sacrifice and set off to sail beyond the stars in search of a newer world in which the world’s children have their childhood and live their dreams, which AIDS does not become the burden for the world as Apartheid was for his childhood. Today, we all go forth with a fresh chance to build a great and global alliance to find a vaccine, discover a cure, prevent new infections, treat the sick and care for the orphans. If we can see ourselves in those who suffer and find our freedom in their release, we will not only change the course of this epidemic, but the course of history. I know how discouraging this is for many of you. I know how long you have fought, how many you have buried. How many tears you have shed, but you know as well as I that there are now cracks appearing in glaciers of indifference you thought would never melt. In the United States, in his last year in the Senate, Senator Jesse Helms said that his one regret was that he had no done more against AIDS. He asked the United States to spend another 500 million dollars. There are people like that all over the world. Do not give up on anyone. Keep pushing the rock up the hill.

NARRATOR: After Mr. Clinton, Nelson Mandela.

NELSON MANDELLA: AIDS should not be a disease of children. The importance of finding of a vaccine, have not prevented us being prepared to participate in large-scale vaccine trials. The list goes on and on, but we do not have time to address all of these important subjects. Instead, we have to select a few issues which are requiring the most urgent attention. In my mind, nothing can be more heart-rending and in need of urgent attention than the case of AIDS orphans who so often find themselves rejected and ostracized by communities. Personally, nothing can shake me more than the sight of these innocent, young children suffering physically, socially and emotionally. There are nearly 14 million children that have lost one or both parents to AIDS. It is predicted that they’ll be more – they’ll be 25 million orphans by 2010. This is a tragedy of enormous consequences. I am sure that you have been told that AIDS is killing more people than were killed by all the past wars in Israel and national disasters put together. AIDS is a war against humanity. The stigma and discrimination inflicted on these children are atrocious and inexcusable. Many people suffering from AIDS are not killed by the disease itself, but are killed by the stigma surrounding everybody who has HIV-AIDS. [applause] Because, when you keep quiet, and this is something we must repeat 100 times, when you keep quiet, you are signing your own death warrant. And, the best thing to do is to be frank. Say, “I have this disease.” I want you to talk. We need to remind ourselves why so many of these children are orphans today. Because their parents were not able to get access to treatment for AIDS, most likely, because they could not afford it, or because they lived in a country which was too poor to provide the basic health care. We must note that one of the greatest assaults to human dignity is poverty. We must find ways and means to make life saving treatment available to all who need it. [applause] Regardless of whether they can pay for it or where they live, or for any other reason why treatment is denied. If parents with AIDS can be given a few more years, perhaps several years, or even longer, then their children will be given a much better opportunity for maturing, survival and development. [applause] I want to say to all of you who are activists in the war against AIDS, you have my greatest admiration. Keep on fighting and you will overcome the terrible scourge of humankind. [applause]