The International AIDS Conference is a biennial event which provides professionals and people living with HIV from around the world with a platform to share knowledge, discuss experiences, and promote best practices. The 2010 International AIDS Conference, which wrapped up on July 23rd, focused on the future of the global response to HIV/AIDS under the theme “Rights Here, Rights Now."
Significant challenges persist in both the treatment and prevention of HIV in Africa and Eastern Europe. Why are we failing? Human rights issues are repeatedly cited as the most significant barrier to successful prevention and treatment but have largely gone unnoticed. In 2006, world leaders committed to achieving a goal of universal access to HIV medications and prevention programs by 2010. While there have been marked improvements in medication access in some areas of the world, the rate of new infections continues to exceed the number of people accessing antiretroviral therapy. All over the world, those most in need of HIV support and services still remain the least likely to receive them. Who are we failing? These are our women, children, and criminalised populations.
Women and girls face widespread discrimination and violence. Many countries do not recognise domestic abuse or rape within a marriage. Women are oppressed by laws restricting their rights to own property, even following a divorce or death. A lack of economic power leads to a lack of power to negotiate condom use or refuse sex. Women often have unequal access to education, health information, and services. Additionally, women often face discrimination and judgement from health care professionals, whether in accessing safer sex supplies or seeking antiretroviral drugs during pregnancy. Less than 10 percent of women in the developing world have access to medication to prevent HIV transmission to their babies (something rarely seen in the developed world), and paediatric formulations of HIV medications are in very short supply.
Youth aged 15-24 account for over half of new HIV infections worldwide. Children and youth frequently lack access to HIV information, practical sexual education, and safer sex supplies. Sexual messaging towards youth is often filled with messages promoting abstinence and sexual morality rather than condom use. Children orphaned by AIDS in Africa are denied basic rights to social protection and routinely experience abuse, exploitation, and discrimination from the adults around them.
Criminalised populations are regularly deterred from HIV services because of discrimination and violence. These populations include men who have sex with men, sex workers, and people who use drugs. The police are often perpetrators of this violence, reinforced by the laws against sodomy (and homosexuality), narcotics, and sex work that exist in many countries. Prisoners in many parts of the world lack access to basic health services, including HIV testing and treatment. Prisoners living with HIV and aware of their status are often subject to discrimination and segregation within the prison population. Failure to take effective action against rape and a lack of safer sex, injection, and tattooing equipment worsen the impact of HIV/AIDS in these institutions.
In spite of significant increases for global HIV funding, there has been little investment in human rights initiatives. With a global economic crisis and a staggering estimate for universal treatment costs, the future of this funding is uncertain. AIDS is not in recession; to protect public health we must protect human rights. Without acknowledging this central piece we will continue to fall short of our goals.
If you would like to learn more about human rights and HIV, or support the “Now More Than Ever” campaign, visit: hivhumanrightsnow.org
Source
Human Rights and HIV/AIDS, Now More Than Ever. 10 Reasons Why Human Rights Should Occupy the Centre of the Global AIDS Struggle. Accessed August 5, 2010. http://www.hivhumanrightsnow.org/eng/Reasons/view/1
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