Each year, December 1 marks World AIDS Day, when activists around the world come together to raise awareness of the global HIV epidemic, fight prejudice, and improve HIV education and HIV prevention.

This year's theme is "universal access and human rights" — an important reminder that much of the HIV-positive population, including young people, GLBTQ people, those affected by poverty, and marginalized groups like sex workers and injecting drug users still face unequal access to resources, services, and medication. And AIDS is the leading cause of death among women around the world. 

From December 1 through December 8, Advocates will be hosting a World AIDS Day blogathon on Amplify.  Learn more at www.amplifyyourvoice.org/worldaidsday!

Raising Youth Voices at the 2010 United Nations Conference on Climate Change

Advocates for Youth and a number of organizations are working together to advance reproductive and environmental justice for youth at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Cancun, Mexico, being held from November 30-December 10, 2010.

Three of Advocates' International Year of Youth journalists are attending the meeting to elevate young people's sexual and reproductive health and rights issues within the dialogue. They are reporting from the conference daily about if and how governments are addressing the intersection between climate change mitigation and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Learn more about how the issues intersect at www.amplifyyourvoice.org/climatechange. 

The next two weeks could be the most important weeks in the lives of thousands of young people in America. After ten years, the House and Senate will finally vote on the DREAM Act, a bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented young people (known as “DREAMers”) who have grown up in the United States after being brought to the country as children.

Click here to take action. 

by Nikki Serapio, Manager, New Media Strategies

The UN General Assembly’s Third Committee, which is responsible for various social, humanitarian, and core human rights issues, voted last week to remove sexual orientation from a UN resolution condemning extrajudicial, summary, and arbitrary executions. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission provides a summary of the decision: