|
|
 |
HIV/AIDS and Human Rights - Speech to UN Commission on Human Rights
UNAIDS Speech. Peter Piot, Executive Director - UNAIDS. 19 March 2003.
|
The goal of realising human rights is fundamental to the global fight against HIV/AIDS.
And in a world facing a terrible epidemic - one that has already spread further, faster and to more devastating effect than any other in human history - winning the fight against HIV/AIDS is a precondition for achieving rights worth enjoying.
Therefore, collectively, we face two imperatives. One is to ensure the pursuit of human rights is integrated across all HIV/AIDS programming. The other is to ensure that national and global human rights instruments and organisations are vigorous in their action on behalf of people living with HIV/AIDS and those affected by HIV/AIDS. We must use an HIV/AIDS-lens to scrutinise the realisation of human rights, and use these rights as a platform to increase the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS responses.
I am delighted to note substantial progress on both these imperatives, in Government action on all continents, in continuing collaborations with non-governmental organisations, and globally.
Today I wish to emphasise two key messages: first, the application of specific rights to a world with HIV/AIDS; and second, progress in national action and accountability for realisation of these rights.
For many years, it has been orthodox to assert that human rights are central to the fight against HIV/AIDS. That perspective was made explicit in the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, adopted unanimously by the member states of the United Nations at the General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS in June 2001. But today, people living with HIV/AIDS and the communities around the world that are struggling under the burden of the epidemic continue to face stigma and discrimination; frank and effective HIV/AIDS education programmes are still censored; property and other rights are still denied to women, making them vulnerable to HIV/AIDS; and children with HIV/AIDS still find themselves thrown out of schools.
To realise rights, we need to get specific about which rights, and how to hold states accountable for their protection. Let me draw attention to three rights, in particular, that are currently being used in the fight against HIV/AIDS: the rights of the child, the right to health, and the right to freedom of opinion.
When the Committee on the Rights of the Child issued its General Comment on HIV/AIDS and the Rights of the Child just two months ago, it made history. It was the first ever General Comment on HIV/AIDS issued by a Treaty monitoring mechanism. That General Comment identifies good practices for States, and in particular that they expressly prohibit discrimination against children on the basis of real or perceived HIV status, and to protect their privacy.
The General Comment means that the response to HIV/AIDS in relation to children is now part of formal international law, with all that implies in terms of monitoring and accountability. It is a vital tool to assist the Committee in monitoring HIV-related rights. States have been specifically asked to report on the HIV-related measures they have put in place to protect children.
Not surprisingly, the right to health is also a central instrument in relation to the realisation of HIV-related rights. The aspect that has gained most recent attention is the right to access to treatment. The gaping global divide between those people who have access to life-saving treatment and those denied it is ethically unsustainable. The global coalition that has massed in recent years to overcome that divide is something of which we can all be proud.
Among the keys to creating a more just world have been the legislative guarantees of universal access to anti-retroviral treatment - as pioneered in Latin and Central America in the 1990s. As the UN Secretary-General's report to this meeting demonstrates, this Commission's Resolutions on the right to treatment access have made a difference, with free access becoming a reality in an increasing number of countries - but it remains the exception, not the rule. Today, only 300,000 people with HIV/AIDS in the developing world are using anti-retroviral treatment - five percent of the nearly-six million whose lives would be saved by this treatment. And in sub-Saharan Africa, this treatment gets to less than one per cent of those who need it. So, realising the right to health, both in treatment access and much wider, is a vital concern for those living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. I therefore particularly welcome the appointment of a rapporteur on the right to health - Mr. Paul Hunt.
To take a third example of a specific right that needs to be realised in the context of HIV/AIDS: the right to freedom of opinion. The Special Rapporteur, Mr. Ambeyi Ligabo, has affirmed that this right, with all it implies about access to information and to community voice, is a sine qua non condition of effective education and information campaigns to prevent HIV/AIDS.
Mr Ligabo's report draws attention to the multiple ways in which freedom of opinion underpins HIV/AIDS work, including:
- ensuring socially-excluded groups are encompassed by awareness campaigns;
- that school curricula address HIV/AIDS;
- that communities can learn from one another; and
- that there are specific programmes for indigenous people, refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants.
To turn to my second major theme, we need to forge ahead in scaling up action - and attendant accountability - at national level. National accountability for the realisation of rights needs to be strengthened three ways: one, legislatively, two, by building community capacities, and three, by providing specific support to People Living with HIV/AIDS.
Experience has shown that HIV/AIDS must be treated explicitly in national anti-discrimination laws. One exemplary case is that of Cambodia, where the HIV/AIDS Law passed in 2002 outlaws discrimination based on HIV status.
Such laws must be coupled with the implementation of strategies addressing rights of vulnerable groups.
The full speech can be accessed by clicking on the link on the righthand side of this page
|
| Was this article helpful to you? |
 ?0%???? ?0%
|
|
Back
|
|
|
|
