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Summary: On 20 March, a panel discussion took place at the Human Rights Council to give voice to people living with, and affected by HIV and AIDS, including young people.
In an opening statement, Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said 31 years after the discovery of HIV/AIDS, significant gains had been made: 2.5 million deaths had been averted since 1995, new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths had fallen to their lowest levels since the peak of the epidemic and 14 million people were now accessing life-saving treatment. "Funding a major challenge" A new Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS was adopted last year by the General Assembly which contained a number of goals and targets to sustain the gains. Funding was now a major challenge; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, had recently cancelled its eleventh round of funding. Funding the AIDS response was a human rights legal obligation, said Ms. Pillay, adding that the current economic crisis should not be allowed to translate into a reversal in the gains made so far. "A question of social justice" Bience Philomina Gawanas, African Union Commissioner, Social Affairs and Commissioner of the Global Commission on HIV and Law, discussion moderator, said she was a person affected by HIV. The discussion about HIV/AIDS was not about numbers, it was not about saying the rights things, but about doing the right things. HIV/AIDS was not just a question of health, but a question of social justice. "Success leading to complacency" Paul De Lay, Deputy Executive Director, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, speaking as a panellist on behalf of Executive Director Michel Sidibe, said that success was leading to complacency and that human rights were needed now more than ever to take the response to the next and, hopefully, final phase. It was imperative to maintain treatment for those who had received it, and reach, by 2015, the over 8 million people still in need. Nontobeki Dlamini, International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS – Southern Africa, Swaziland, speaking as a panellist, told her story concerning the reproductive rights of women living with HIV/AIDS and asked whether she was deprived of having another child because of the insufficient knowledge of her health worker who suggested that she tied her tubes or because of HIV/AIDS. Nick Rhoades, Centre for HIV Law and Policy, United States, said that he had been charged with criminal transmission of HIV, although HIV had not been transmitted. The issue was that of non-disclosure rather than transmission. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison, but was later released mainly because of public pressure and activities of groups he had been affiliated with. Moyses Toniolo, National Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, Brazil, said there were many forms of discrimination that people living with HIV/AIDS experienced in the workplace. It was important to demystify HIV/AIDS, to stress that it could not be disseminated in the workplace through social interactions and to change people's perceptions of people who were infected so that those who lived with HIV/AIDS were no longer stigmatized. Dmytro Sherembei, All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV, Ukraine, said he was HIV positive and had spent ten years in prison where he had almost died. He survived despite the system and stressed that a human rights approach to HIV/AIDS should be focused on preserving the extreme value of life by providing HIV positive people with treatment. Interactive discussion In the discussion delegations said that protecting the rights of people who were living with HIV was a global problem which required attention from the international community with a focus on the provision of medicine at affordable prices. It was an issue that had also a significant impact on economic development. Several speakers said that progress in Africa had been possible due to the commitment of States, the resources provided by the Global Fund and the active involvement of civil society. Sustainable HIV financing options for Africa were necessary and international support was critical. The evidence generated by the Global Commission on HIV and the Law left no doubt that punitive legal environments were confounding effective HIV responses and that stigma and discrimination had contributed to counter-productive and unjust laws. The focus in the future needed to be on developing human rights based strategies that would also address the needs of vulnerable groups and evidence-based public health interventions must be grounded by a respect for human rights in order to achieve goals in combating the HIV epidemic. Speaking in the interactive dialogue were Brazil, Senegal on behalf of the African Union, Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the European Union, Belgium, United Nations Development Programme, Cuba, Germany, Uruguay, Ireland, Morocco, Ecuador, Indonesia, Norway, Algeria, Chile, United Nations Children Fund, Australia, Kenya Russian Federation, United States, Georgia, Honduras, Spain, International Labour Organization, Mexico and France. The National Human Rights Council of Morocco, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and Conectas Direitos Humanos also took the floor. pdf: http://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=11992&L...