作者：联合国驻华协调员常启德、联合国艾滋病规划署驻华国家主任桑爱玲
社会发展帮助弥合城乡之间、各地区之间的鸿沟。图片来源@联合国教科文组织
联合国驻华协调员常启德（左）、联合国艾滋病规划署驻华国家主任桑爱玲（右）
早在上世纪90年代，抗逆转录病毒药物的发现为拯救人们的生命，使其免受艾滋病病毒流行病影响带来了一线希望。在接下来的几年里，艾滋病病毒感染者受益于科技的进步，开始过上更长寿、更健康、更有活力的生活。然而，几乎所有受益者都来自北半球的富裕国家。截止2000年，约有900万人因这些救命药物资源分配的的不平等而死亡。
这是艾滋病防治工作留给我们的惨痛经验，然而，在应对今天的健康危机时，人们似乎还没有吸取这一教训。
当去年新冠肺炎大流行肆虐全球并夺走数百万人的生命时，科学家、医生和护士、制药行业和医学专家迅速响应，投身于疫苗的研发以防止更多的人感染病毒。然而，当疫苗研制出来后，不平等现象再次发生。有数据表明，世界上最富有的国家垄断了一半以上的疫苗生产剂量，使中低收入国家难以获得疫苗。10个富裕国家已经囤积75%的疫苗—而大约130个国家还没有得到任何疫苗。
世界卫生组织总干事谭德塞在2021年1月向世卫组织执行委员会发出的信息引人深思，他说："即使疫苗给一些人带来了希望，但它们却成为世界上富人和穷人之间不平等墙上的另一块砖头"。
新冠肺炎大流行暴露并凸显了世界上普遍存在的不平等现象。这就是为何今年"零歧视日"的主题"结束不平等"在当今世界如此贴切。当今世界，我们彼此相联。全球不平等影响着所有人，无论何人，来自何方。如果人们未能得到机会改善生活，我们就无法实现可持续发展并让地球变得更美好。
不平等现象无处不在：收入、健康状况、就业、残障、性别认同、种族、阶级、族裔和宗教。据估计，全球70%以上的人口经历过不平等行为，这加剧了分裂的风险，阻碍了经济和社会发展。几乎每十个人中就有两个人报告亲身经历过至少一种国际人权法所规定的歧视行为。
歧视和不平等是相互交织的。对个人和群体的歧视可导致更大范围的不平等—例如在收入、教育成果、健康和就业方面。不平等还可能导致污名和歧视。研究表明，这种社会和结构性的歧视将导致在获得司法和健康救助方面的严重不平等。
解决不平等问题并不是一个新的承诺— 2015年，作为可持续发展目标的一部分，所有联合国会员国都承诺减少国家内部和国家之间的不平等。联合国艾滋病规划署于2014年3月1日在北京正式启动了首个"零歧视日"，呼吁各国检视其法律和政策中的歧视性条款，并做出积极的改变，以确保平等、包容和保护，特别是在性工作者及其客户、男男性行为者、跨性别人群和注射吸毒者等重点人群中。
解决不平等和歧视问题不仅是消除艾滋病的核心，在普遍意义上也能更好地保障艾滋病病毒感染者的权益，并且使社会做好战胜新冠肺炎和其他大流行病的准备，有效支持经济复苏和稳定。实现解决不平等这一问题将拯救数百万人的生命，并惠及整个社会。
结束不平等需要变革。需要加大努力，消除极端贫困和饥饿，需要在卫生、教育、社会保护和体面工作方面加大投资。
我们借此机会祝贺中国在过去40年里不仅使近8亿人摆脱了极端贫困，而且在2013年以来的几年里，使近1亿农村人口摆脱贫困这一伟大成就。中国提前10年实现了2030年可持续发展目标的目标一 “消除贫困”，这是结束不平等的重要里程碑。
各国政府必须促进包容性的社会和经济增长，消除歧视性的法律、政策和行为，确保机会平等，减少不平等。只有以人为本，才能确保不让任何人掉队。
中国外交部长王毅日前在联合国人权理事会第四十六届会议高级别会议上的发言很好地诠释了这一方针。他说："人是人权之本，人民的利益是人权事业的出发点和落脚点，增加人民的获得感、幸福感、安全感是人权的根本追求和国家治理的终极目标。"
在结束歧视和减少不平等现象方面，我们每个人都可以参与其中。当看到歧视现象时，我们可以为之发声，可以以身作则，或呼吁修改法律。
我们相信，平等可以且理应实现。让我们一起实现这个目标。
以下为英文原文：《End inequality and achieve sustainable development for all》
By UN Resident Coordinator to China, Siddharth Chatterjee and UNAIDS Country Director to China, Amakobe Sande
Back in the 1990s, the discovery of antiretrovirals offered a ray of hope to save people’s lives from the HIV epidemic. Over this decade, people living with HIV benefited from the scientific advances and began to have longer, healthier and more productive lives. However, almost all the beneficiaries were from rich countries in the global north. As a result, about nine million people died by the year 2000 due to the inequality in accessing these life-saving medicines.
It is a hard lesson from the HIV response, but unfortunately, it seems the lesson is not yet learned in dealing with today’s health crisis.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world last year and claimed millions of lives, scientists, doctors and nurses, pharmaceutical industries, and experts acted quickly to develop vaccines to prevent further infections. However, when the vaccines were developed, the same kind of inequalities happened. Research shows the world's wealthiest countries have monopolised more than half of the production doses of vaccines, leaving low-and-medium-income countries struggling to secure vaccines. 10 rich countries have administered 75 per cent of all COVID-19 vaccines - while some 130 countries have not yet received a single dose.
In a poignant message to WHO’s Executive Board in January 2021, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “even as vaccines bring hope to some, they become another brick in the wall of inequality between the world’s haves and have-nots”.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and underlined the widespread inequalities in the world. That’s why the theme of this year’s Zero Discrimination Day, “End Inequality”, is so pertinent in today’s world. In today’s world, we are all interconnected. Global inequality affects us all, no matter who we are or where we are from. We cannot achieve sustainable development and make the planet better for all if people are excluded from the chance of a better life.
Inequality happens everywhere: income, health status, occupation, disability, gender identity, race, class, ethnicity and religion. As estimated, inequality is growing for more than 70% of the global population, exacerbating the risk of division and hampering economic and social development. And almost two in ten people reported having personally experienced discrimination on at least one of the grounds established by international human rights law.
Discrimination and inequalities are intertwined. Discrimination against individuals and groups can lead to a wide range of inequalities—for example, in income, educational outcomes, health and employment. Inequalities can also lead to stigma and discrimination. Research shows that this social and structural discrimination results in significant inequalities in access to justice and in health outcomes.
Tackling inequality is not a new commitment—in 2015, all UN member states pledged to reduce inequality within and among countries as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. UNAIDS officially launched the first Zero Discrimination Day on 1 March 2014 in Beijing, calling on countries to examine discriminatory provisions in their laws and policies and make positive changes to ensure equality, inclusion and protection, particularly among key populations such as sex workers and their clients, men who have sex with men, transgender people and people who inject drugs.
As well as being core to ending AIDS, tackling inequality and discrimination is universal in nature and will advance the human rights of people living with HIV, make societies better prepared to beat COVID-19 and other pandemics and support economic recovery and stability. Fulfilling the promise to tackle inequality will save millions of lives and benefit society as a whole.
Ending inequality requires transformative change. Greater efforts are needed to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, and there is a need to invest more in health, education, social protection and decent jobs.
We take this opportunity to congratulate China for not only lifting nearly 800 million people out of extreme poverty over the last four decades, but in the years since 2013, lifting nearly 100 million people out of poverty in the rural areas, setting China on course to achieve SDG 1 or ending poverty ten years before 2030. A significant milestone towards ending inequality.
Governments must promote inclusive social and economic growth and eliminate discriminatory laws, policies and practices to ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities. A people-centred approach is needed to ensure we leave no one behind.
This approach was explained well by China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who made remarks at the High-level Segment of the 46th Session of The United Nations Human Rights Council recently. He said, “Increasing people's sense of gains, happiness and security is the fundamental pursuit of human rights as well as the ultimate goal of national governance.”
We all have a role to play in ending discrimination and so reducing inequalities. We can all play our part by calling out discrimination where we see it, by setting an example or by advocating to change the law.
We believe equality can and should be achieved. Let’s make it happen.
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