World AIDS Day: Human Rights Watch Calls for Increased Support

Protections for Global AIDS Activists

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By: Anonymous

Date: December 1, 2005

Source: Human Rights Watch. "World AIDS Day: Human Rights Watch Calls for Increased Support, Protections for Global AIDS Activists." December 1, 2005. <http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/12/01/global 12114_txt.htm> (accessed May 30, 2006).

About the Author: Founded in 1978, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) is the largest human rights organization in the U.S. HRW is composed of 150 professionals including lawyers, journalists, and academics and a cadre of volunteers. Based in New York, its motto is "Defending Human Rights World Wide."

INTRODUCTION

World AIDS Day takes place each year on the first day of December. Millions of people worldwide wear red ribbons on this day as a symbol of support for those living with HIV/AIDS and the hope for a cure in the future. Activists mark the day with demonstrations and gatherings to highlight current issues in the fight against AIDS.

One of the key issues in the global war on HIV/ AIDS is protecting those with the illness and activists from discrimination, intimidation, and violence. The stigmatization of those with AIDS has hindered the progress of education, prevention, and treatment campaigns especially in countries such as India, China, and those of Africa. According to Jane Galvao, a researcher who studied the history of the HIV/AIDS crisis in Brazil, "people affected by HIV/AIDS who are living in areas where discrimination, stigmatization, and threats against individuals with HIV/AIDS are high are less inclined to seek testing, thereby postponing treatment if available, which means that opportunities to decrease HIV transmission are lost."

The AIDS epidemic is among the largest public health threats of the twenty-first century. In response to the growing trend of human rights violations, the Carr Center issued a report in 2001 stating:

But the pandemic represents more than a health catastrophe. It is both a product of, and exacerbated by, pervasive violations of human rights. HIV/AIDS is a preventable and manageable disease that has been turned into a pandemic by ignorance, neglect, and violations of human rights. The disease most deeply affects those least able to enjoy their rights: the poorest, the weakest, the least educated, the most stigmatized.

In June 2001, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly acknowledged the role of Human Rights in HIV/AIDS with their "Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS." In addition, in 2003, UNAIDS formed the Global Reference Group on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights-validating the connection between human rights and HIV/AIDS.

In 2002, UNAIDS released the HIV/AIDS and Human Rights International Guidelines. Then, in 2004 UNAIDS and UNESCO proposed the initiative "An AIDS-free Generation in Less than a Generation."

PRIMARY SOURCE

AIDS activists around the world face frequent government repression and abuse and need substantially increased support and protections, said Human Rights Watch on World AIDS Day.

"The few success stories we have in the global fight against AIDS are the result of the heroic efforts of courageous individuals mobilizing impoverished, marginalized, and stigmatized populations to action," said Joe Amon, director of the HIV/AIDS Program at Human Rights Watch. "But AIDS activists and outreach workers are often harassed or even jailed by their governments for simply standing up and speaking out about AIDS, and the international donor community is doing too little to protect them."

Human Rights Watch has documented numerous cases of AIDS activists and non-governmental organizations being harassed, intimidated, or jailed for their work. In China, government officials have jailed activists seeking to expose government complicity in a tainted blood scandal that has infected hundreds of thousands of rural villages with HIV in the country's Henan province. In India and Bangladesh, outreach workers delivering services to sex workers, to men who have sex with men, and to other hidden populations, have faced widespread police harassment and violence.

In Uganda, activists protesting the government's recent turn toward moralistic "abstinence-until-marriage" programs face intimidation from officials and accusations of immorality. In the Philippines, police routinely arrest women and accuse them of prostitution for simply carrying condoms. In Russia, the parliament is considering legislation that would tighten government control over Russian and foreign non-governmental organizations, threatening vital outreach and education programs for injecting drug users and sex workers.

Activists have encountered government violence for doing nothing but demonstrating peacefully for access to health care. This year in Queenstown, South Africa, police fired rubber bullets and teargas at members of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) who were protesting the slow progress of the government's antiretroviral treatment program. Human Rights Watch has called for a full investigation into this incident.

"Bitter experience has shown that repressing civil society only fuels AIDS epidemics," said Amon. "Where repression rules the day, AIDS wins."

Since 2002, Human Rights Watch has honored six individuals or organizations for their courageous work defending the rights of people living with or affected by AIDS. They are:

Meena Seshu (2002) is founder and general secretary of SANGRAM, an organization based in Sangli, Maharashtra State, India, that has helped women in prostitution become AIDS educators among themselves and in the wider community.

Dr. Wan Yanhai (2002) is coordinator of the AIZHI (AIDS) Action Project, a nongovernmental organization he founded in 1994 that provides some of the only basic information on HIV/AIDS available to people in China through a widely used web site (www.aizhi.org).

AIDS Law Project (2003) is a pioneering organization that helps combat HIV/AIDS by protecting the rights of the millions affected by the disease in South Africa and that co-founded the Treatment Action Campaign.

The Thai Drug Users' Network (2004) has worked with few resources to help protect the human rights of drug users in Thailand since 2002, even during a brutal anti-drug crack-down that resulted in as many as 3,000 killings.

Humanitarian Action (2005) is a ground-breaking HIV/AIDS organization which has shown that providing outreach and care to Russia's most marginalized populations—such as syringe exchange for drug users, outreach to street-based sex workers, and medical services for street children—is the best way to stem the tide of HIV/AIDS.

Beatrice Were (2005), is one of Uganda's most courageous and compelling AIDS activists. She founded an organization that supports women living with HIV/AIDS and engages in advocacy on behalf of AIDS-affected families and was one of the first Ugandan women to openly declare her HIV status.

SIGNIFICANCE

In her analysis of the HIV/AIDS crisis in Brazil, Galvao argues "the participation of civil society had a key role in bringing about and sustaining the Brazilian government's ARV (anti-retroviral drug) distribution policy" Cooperation among communities has a significant impact on better health outcomes; however, it is only a beginning in the fight against factors that exacerbate the war on HIV/AIDS including discrimination and poverty.

Research on HIV/AIDS prevention shows that human rights issues associated with AIDS prevention are in need of greater attention. Sexual violence, prostitution, poverty, illiteracy, inadequate health services and condoms, lack of information about safe sex practices, and drug use fuel the spread of AIDS in the developing world. Effective human rights based campaigns against AIDS combat not only discrimination and social stigmas, but also address warfare, rape, prostitution, women's rights and access to healthcare. Many human rights activists and medical professionals also assert that both developed and developing nations must work to improve the availability of effective and reasonably priced medication for HIV/AIDS patients

Since 1980, nearly twenty-three million people across the globe have died of HIV/AIDS and AIDS-related illnesses. As many as ninety-five percent of individuals with HIV/AIDS live in developing nations. World AIDS Day, observed annually on December 1^st, was created in 1998 to draw international attention to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and human rights issues. Some past annual themes for World AIDS Day include "Stigma & Discrimination," "Children Living in a World with AIDS," and "Women & AIDS."

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

UNAIDS. 2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic. Geneva, Switzerland: UNAIDS, 2006.

World Health Organization. World Health Report 2006. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, 2006.

Periodicals

Berkman A., et al. "A Critical Analysis of the Brazilian Response to HIV/AIDS: Lessons Learned for Controlling and Mitigating the Epidemic in Developing Countries." American Journal of Public Health. 95 (2005): 1162–1172.

de Carvalho Mesquita Ayres, J.R., et al. "Vulnerability, Human Rights, and Comprehensive Health Care Needs of Young People Living With HIV/AIDS." American Journal of Public Health. 96 (2006): 1001–1006.

Galvão, J. "Brazil and Access to HIV/AIDS Drugs: A Question of Human Rights and Public Health." American Journal of Public Health. 95 (2005): 1110–1116.

Web sites

United Nations. "HIV/AIDS and Human Rights: from Awareness to Action." 2004 <http://www.un.org/ cyberschoolbus/student/2004/theme.asp> (accessed May 31, 2006).