HRH Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway

Crown Princess Mette-Marit was appointed Special Representative for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in 2006. In this capacity, she has traveled to Nicaragua, Ukraine, and Mali on AIDS-related visits.

Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s primary focus has been on securing and strengthening youth leadership in the effort to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and to combat prejudice. The Crown Princess has participated actively in efforts to ensure that those who are most severely affected by the epidemic , such as young people and people living with HIV, are able to influence decision-making and strategy processes in AIDS-related activities.

In June 2009 the Crown Princess invited 30 young leaders from all over the world to the Young Leaders Summit II in Oslo to work on specific recommendations for future AIDS efforts. Established leaders from various sectors also participated at the summit as mentors and discussion partners. The Crown Princess hosted the summit together with the Norwegian Minister of the Environment and International Development, and UNAIDS.

The Crown Princess has also led delegations to the International AIDS Conference, the world’s largest health conference. The Crown Princess participated in the conference for the first time in 2006 in Toronto, and has attended those in Vienna and Washington, D.C.

The Crown Princess has an extensive international network in the HIV/AIDS sphere and has assisted UNAIDS in its strategic efforts to involve local youth organizations around the world in combatting the spread of the epidemic. In 2011 she attended the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on AIDS. The meeting marked 30 years of the HIV/AIDS response. It adopted a declaration setting out specific targets for HIV/AIDS-related work through 2015: sexual transmission of HIV reduced by half, transmission of HIV among people who inject drugs reduced by half, mother-to-child transmission eliminated, and 15 million people on antiretroviral treatment.