Update

Advancing human rights and access to justice in the AIDS response

17 June 2015

Ending the AIDS epidemic requires not only increasing HIV prevention and treatment services but also protecting and promoting human rights within the AIDS response, according to participants at a side event of the 29th session of the Human Rights Council, taking place in Geneva, Switzerland.

Representatives of governments, civil society and the United Nations highlighted the importance of human rights as a critical component of effective HIV responses and stressed the essential nature of access to justice for people living with HIV and populations most affected by the virus.

In the context of HIV, accessing justice was defined as ensuring that policies and programmes enable people living with and affected by HIV to know their human rights, to mobilize around protective laws, to be protected by the police and to be able to access the justice system if they have been harmed.

Participants identified various steps that stakeholders can take to ensure access to justice within the AIDS response. These include removing discriminatory laws; elimination of HIV-related stigma and discrimination in various sectors, such as health care and employment, and encouraging police and law enforcement to be supportive of key populations’ access to HIV services.

UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director Luiz Loures stressed the centrality of human rights within the AIDS response and called for stronger partnerships between HIV and human rights activists, as punitive laws and other rights issues are a collective challenge for all.

The side event was co-organized by Brazil, Netherlands, Poland and UNAIDS.

Quotes

“Human rights are a guiding light to the realization of the right to health, and we have to explore all possible synergies between these two areas. It is time to act!”

Regina Maria Cordeiro Dunlop, Permanent Mission of Brazil

"A participatory approach to the AIDS response in the health care sector implies having the necessary mechanisms in place for users and communities to ensure access to services that are responsive to the needs of the different groups affected, be it drug users, sex workers, pregnant women or gay men."

Dainius Puras, Special Rapporteur on the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health

“AIDS, more than ever before, is a human rights issue. We must make human rights work for people; we must move from rhetoric to action if we want to ends the AIDS epidemic.”

Luiz Loures, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director

“Law reform is a longer-term goal. Meanwhile, legal services can improve the quality of people’s lives immediately.”

David Patterson, International Development Law Organization

“Accessing lawyers and courts and the decision to seek a legal remedy is difficult for most people, and even more so for those who are stigmatized and discriminated against at every step of the process. Thus, there is an urgent and continued need for greater measures to guarantee access to justice for all within the AIDS response.”

Rebecca Brown, Center for Reproductive Rights

Related information

Human Rights