|
| |
At the close of 2007, 33 million people are living with HIV. In just 12 months, 2.5 million people became infected with the virus, and 2 million people died of it.
HIV-related human rights abuses occur all over the world, but tend to disproportionately affect communities that are already marginalized and discriminated against: women and girls, men who have sex with men, sex workers, injecting drug users, immigrants, and prisoners. In the past year, Human Rights Watch has focused its work on documenting the human rights abuses these individuals face, and pressing for changes to end these abuses. We have worked to:
-
Advocate for access to effective drug addiction treatment in Russia and for access to anti-retroviral drugs for injecting drug users in Thailand
-
Bring attention to the lack of access to HIV prevention information and services for immigrants and prisoners living with HIV in US detention facilities
-
Demand that the rights of people living with HIV and AIDS advocates in China, Saudi Arabia, Zambia and Burma are respected.
Too often, the importance of addressing human rights in the global fight against AIDS is only rhetorical. "Now More Than Ever: 10 Reasons Why Human Rights Should Occupy the Center of the Global AIDS Struggle", presents a declaration of 24 non-governmental groups to put human rights at the core of the global response. A rights-based approach to the epidemic restores the rights of people affected by HIV and AIDS, fights stigma and discrimination, and reduces vulnerability of the world's most marginalized individuals.
|
Latest News RSS News Feed  
Universal Periodic Review of Romania
Human Rights Watch's Submission to the Human Rights Council
This submission will focus only on Human Rights Watch’s key concerns regarding Romania’s compliance with international human rights law in its treatment of children and youth living with HIV. It draws on research and recommendations presented in greater detail in our August 2006 report, Life Doesn’t Wait: Romania’s Failure to Protect and Support Children and Youth Living with HIV
May 5, 2008 Written Statement
Printer friendly version
Universal Periodic Review of Ukraine
Human Rights Watch's Submission to the Human Rights Council
This submission summarizes Human Rights Watch’s key concerns with Ukraine’s compliance with its international obligations in the context of four areas that have been the focus of Human Rights Watch’s work in recent years – human rights abuses fueling the HIV/AIDS epidemic, as well as discrimination against women in employment, media freedoms, and the treatment of migrants.
May 5, 2008 Written Statement
Printer friendly version
Universal Periodic Review of Zambia
Human Rights Watch's Submission to the Human Rights Council
In Zambia, where 17 percent of the adult population is living with HIV/AIDS, women face grave gender-based abuses, in particular domestic violence, which hinder their ability to access or continue using life-saving HIV treatment.
Despite Zambia’s impressive roll-out of HIV treatment, the country’s health system and legal framework fail to address these barriers to women’s HIV treatment and as a result, some women living with HIV miss out on life-saving HIV treatment.
May 5, 2008 Written Statement
Printer friendly version
Written Testimony to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on the Human Rights Concerns of Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs
Accurate and objective sexual education is critical to advancing public health and promoting human rights. This fact is widely accepted within the international community and is supported by the provisions of fundamental human rights instruments. Indeed, the current federal policy of funding abstinence-only programs while failing to fund comprehensive sexuality education raises serious human rights concerns. Federal abstinence-only programs threaten a number of basic human rights, including the rights to health, information, and nondiscrimination.
April 30, 2008 Written Statement
Printer friendly version
Second Preparatory Committee Meeting for the Durban Review Conference
Human Rights Watch's Position Paper on the Durban Preparatory Committee
Human Rights Watch urges governments involved in the Durban review process to press for progress on key issues highlighted at the Durban Conference of 2001 and to address recent or new manifestations of racism and related intolerance. Where progress has been made since 2001, Human Rights Watch believes that more can be done. Where States have not been successful in adequately addressing certain forms of discrimination, the review conference provides a renewed opportunity.
April 21, 2008 Written Statement
Printer friendly version
More...
|
|
Program Overview
Rights abuses fuel AIDS: Since the early 1980s, HIV/AIDS has claimed 25 million lives. 40 million people are living with HIV. Its destructive force is fueled by a wide range of human rights violations. Such violations include sexual violence and coercion faced by women and girls, stigmatization of men who have sex with men, abuses against sex workers and injecting drug users, and violations of the right of young persons to information on HIV transmission. In prisons, HIV spreads with frightening efficiency due to sexual violence, lack of access to condoms, lack of harm reduction measures for drug users, and lack of information. Human rights violations only add to the stigmatization of persons at highest risk of infection and thus marginalize and drive underground those most in need of information, preventive services, and treatment.
Abuses follow infection: Persons living with the disease are subject to stigmatization and discrimination in society, including in the workplace and in access to government services. Women whose husbands have died of AIDS are regularly rejected by their own and their husband's families, and their property is frequently taken from them. Thousands of children who have lost parents to AIDS or whose parents are living with the disease have lost their inheritance rights, have had to take on hazardous labor including prostitution, and have been forced to live on the streets where they are subject to police violence and other abuses.
Research: Documenting human rights abuses related to HIV/AIDS and raising awareness about them is essential to combating the epidemic. This work builds naturally on Human Rights Watch's large body of research on discrimination, women's and children's rights, rights of prisoners, and persecution of marginalized groups. Human Rights Watch's program on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights has documented, for example, the drug laws and routine police abuse of injection drug users in the Ukraine, rights violations against children affected by AIDS in Kenya, the fueling of the epidemic through sexual violence on the part of the military in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, police violence against HIV/AIDS outreach workers in India, and how inadequate health and social policies in Zimbabwe threaten recent progress in its fight against HIV/AIDS
Ensuring protection: Human Rights Watch continues to advocate for legal and policy protections for persons affected by or at high risk of HIV/AIDS. In India, for example, this means repeal of an antiquated sodomy law that contributes to police abuse of HIV/AIDS educators who work with men who have sex with men. For AIDS-affected children, this means protecting girls against sexual abuse and ensuring avenues of legal recourse for children without relatives to turn to. For injecting drug users, this means embracing harm reduction strategies and ensuring access to antiretroviral therapy. For sex workers, this means providing protection and empowering them to demand safe sex of their clients. Without a focus on human rights, many investments in HIV/AIDS programs and policies are doomed to fail.
|
|
|
