BACKGROUND
The French National Council for Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome (French National AIDS Council, CNS) was created in 1989 by Presidential decree (decree #89-83)
It was set up as part of the construction of a system to fight the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) inspired by a report by Professor Claude Got (Rapport sur le sida, Flammarion, 1989).
The French National AIDS & Viral Hepatitis Council was created in 2015, February the 27th, as a replacement of the French National AIDS Council (decree #2015-210).
MISSIONS
Expert advice to government officials and agencies:
The French National AIDS & Viral Hepatitis Council delivers opinions and recommendations regarding all the issues that society faces as a result of HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis and STD epidemics.
It is consulted on national health plans and information, prevention and health education programs, established by the Government and public structures.
These papers are addressed to the French authorities and to all those involved in or concerned by these epidemics.
CARACTERISTICS
A place of interdisciplinary thinking:
The CNS is a place of interdisciplinary thinking whose added value is to think the questions as a whole as well as of the overall coherence of actions by the different public health actors and structures.
An independent and actively implicated observer:
The CNS is an independent and committed observer whose thinking has always endeavored to reconcile respect for individual freedoms, public health imperatives, the protection of human rights and the public interest.
A representative of civil society:
The CNS is rich with the diversity and representativity of its members (see the Members section). Its work is based both on authoritative scientific data, widely recognized in France and internationally, and on its very significant practice of hearings of the stakeholders involved in each issue.
Because of the close contacts that the CNS maintains with all the actors in the fight against HIV/AIDS & viral hepatitis, its deliberations are attuned to the most recent scientific debates as well as the day-to-day reality of action on the field.
OPERATION
Collegial operations:
Topics to be considered for CNS deliberation may be selected following official request, or the CNS may itself initiate the procedure. This latter possibility means that the CNS can act as a relay for requests by concerned medical or scientific bodies, or by non-profit organizations.
Three working bodies:
The Council is a deliberative body comprising 26 members, which meets in plenary session every month. The Council discusses and votes the opinions and recommendations of the CNS.
The Executive Board is an offshoot of the Council comprising 3 to 7 members, which meets every fortnight. It coordinates the work of the Council including the schedule of the plenary sessions ; he participates in the monitoring and prepares the strategic orientations submitted to the Council.
Working commissions are small groups created provisionally, whose mission is to develop an opinion, possibly supplemented by a report. The committees may hold hearings. They regularly report on their work to the Council that discusses and votes the Opinion in plenary session.