AIDS and Human Rights
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Scant Progress for People Living with HIV/AIDS, Says UN
Inter Press Service - April 11, 2001
Gustavo Capdevila
http://ww2.aegis.org/news/ips/2001/IP010406.html
GENEVA, Apr 11 (IPS) - Progress on human rights issues related to
HIV/AIDS has been disappointing in the 20 years since the epidemic
began, denounced the United Nations Wednesday.
The director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
(UNAIDS), Peter Piot, stated before the UN Commission on Human Rights
that there continues to be widespread human rights abuse against peo-
ple living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or the subse-
quent acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
"Currently, over 60 countries worldwide restrict freedom of movement
purely on the basis of HIV status and require mandatory testing of
HIV as an entry pre-condition," Piot said.
He also stressed that criminal laws in some countries are inconsis-
tent with international human rights commitments and often target
groups of people that are most vulnerable to HIV.
"For example, recently in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Uganda, presidential
statements have denounced homosexuals as the source of HIV/AIDS in-
fection," the UN official said.
Legislation in those countries tolerates the continued persecution of
homosexuals, he added.
The AIDS epidemic continues to grow. In Sub-Saharan Africa, more peo-
ple died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2000 than ever before, and
the number of new cases reported last year reached 3.8 million. There
are more than 25 million people living with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan
African countries.
In Eastern Europe the disease underwent explosive growth, particu-
larly within the Russian Federation, where increased intravenous drug
use - and the sharing of infected syringes - has contributed to HIV
propagation.
The trajectory of the epidemic has been "uneven but significant" in
the two most populous countries in the world: China and India.
AIDS is entrenched in the Caribbean, and Central American infection
rates are on the rise, while there has been no reduction recorded in
wealthier nations or in Latin America, according to Piot.
In contrast, the UNAIDS director mentioned that there has been some
progress on rights in the context of HIV/AIDS. For example, there is
greater protection of privacy and confidentiality for individuals di-
agnosed with the disease. South Africa abandoned plans that would
have required doctors to report all AIDS patients to the government.
There were "concerns about the policy leading to the ostracism of
people living with AIDS," Piot said.
There have been important advances in enforcing HIV/AIDS- related hu-
man rights at the national level in several countries, he said.
Ghana's national human rights commission has been especially active
in this area.
In Nigeria, Namibia, South Africa and India, cases involving people
with HIV/AIDS are being considered by the courts - "on issues related
to discrimination, the right to employment, the right to marry, and
the right to due process of law," affirmed Piot.
Also along these lines, the UK-based humanitarian organisation Oxfam
International has appealed to the UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Mary Robinson, denouncing the 39 pharmaceutical corporations
that have launched a court action against the South African govern-
ment.
The drug companies, according to Oxfam, are blocking South Africa's
attempts to provide low-cost medications to its people, thus "pre-
venting the government from fulfilling its international human rights
obligations."
Upward of 4.7 million South Africans, or one in nine, are living with
HIV/AIDS, and the vast majority cannot afford the medicines for
treating the disease. "Oxfam believes that 39 of the world's biggest
drug companies are contributing to a gross breach of human rights in
South Africa and has called on the United Nations to investigate,"
Piot reported.
The pharmaceutical corporations filed the lawsuit against the South
African government in the nation's own courts to prevent it from im-
plementing a 1997 law that gives Pretoria the right to obtain cheap
drugs for the population. The legal proceedings recommence Apr 18.
--
Claudio Schuftan
mailto:aviva@netnam.vn
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