Winnie Byanyima sworn in as UNAIDS Executive Director

The former Executive Director of Oxfam international, Eng. Winnie Byanyima has been sworn in as the Executive Director of UNAIDS.

The swearing in ceremony was conducted by the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres at the UN headquarters in New York.

Eng. Byanyima who is also a wife to Uganda’s main opposition politician, Dr. Kizza Besigye, has replaced Michel Sidibé who departed earlier this year.

She was appointed in August as the UNAIDS Executive Director and Under-Secretary-General following a comprehensive selection process that involved a search committee constituted by members of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board.

UNAIDS Programme is dedicated to the elimination of AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

“The end of AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 is a goal that is within the world’s reach, but I do not underestimate the scale of the challenge ahead. Working with all its partners, UNAIDS must continue to speak up for the people left behind and champion human rights as the only way to end the epidemic,” she said.

Ms Byanyima began her career as a champion of marginalized communities and women 30 years ago as a member of parliament in the National Assembly of Uganda.

She became the Director of Women and Development at the African Union Commission, in 2004, working on the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, an international human rights instrument that became an important tool for reducing the disproportionate effect of HIV on the lives of women in Africa.