GENEVA, Switzerland, June 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Organizers of the 20^th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014) announced today that President Bill Clinton, founder of the Clinton Foundation and 42^nd President of the United States, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé and artist and activist Sir Bob Geldof will be among the high-level speakers who will join thousands of the world's top AIDS researchers, community leaders, people living with HIV and policy-makers at AIDS 2014 taking place July 20-25 in Melbourne, Australia.

"AIDS 2014 gathers representatives of science, civil society, politics, and private sector to discuss together at an international level the most pressing issues linked to HIV/AIDS. It is only with an open and collaborative dialogue that we can advance in the response to HIV and to other health threats and having such high-level speakers will amplify the lasting impact of the conference" said Professor Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, AIDS 2014 International Chair, President of the International AIDS Society (IAS) and Director of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Unit at the Institut Pasteur in Paris.

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé and renowned jurist and academic Michael Kirby will also deliver keynote addresses at the opening ceremony.

President Bill Clinton will deliver the keynote address on Wednesday 23 July.

Musician, business entrepreneur and political activist Sir Bob Geldof will be the guest speaker at a session on Thursday 24 July sharing his views on the challenges ahead for defeating HIV in the developing world, and in addition he will deliver a speech at the closing session on Friday, 25 July.

Other key events include, the plenary session on Monday 21 July with an address on the "Future of Science in the HIV Response" by Tony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, will speak on investment in the HIV response; Helen Clark, Administrator of United Nations Development Programme, will present the future of the HIV response in the post-2015 landscape.

The entire AIDS 2014 programme is now available online through the Programme-at-a-Glance. With this interactive system all conference sessions, programme activities and satellites are available.

To read the full press release please visit: http://www.aids2014.org/WebContent/File/AIDS2014_VIPs_media_release_June2014.pdf 

For more information:

Siân Bowen (Geneva, Switzerland) Senior Manager, Communications, IAS & AIDS 2014, Email: Sian.Bowen@iasociety.org, Tel: +41-22-710-0864;

Francesca Da Ros (Geneva, Switzerland) Senior Coordinator, Communications and Media, IAS & AIDS 2014, Email: Francesca.Daros@iasociety.org, Tel: +41-22-710-0822;

Lucy Stackpool-Moore (Melbourne, Australia) Local Communications Coordinator, AIDS 2014, Email: lucy.stackpool-moore@aids2014.org, Tel: +61414448253.

SOURCE International AIDS Society