Human Rights in the Context of Hiv and Aids

Urges States to take all the steps necessary to meet the commitments made in the Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Ending Inequalities and Getting on Track to End AIDS by 2030, adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 75/284 of 8 June 2021;

Also urges States to end all inequalities and human rights violations and abuses faced by persons living with, at risk of or affected by HIV, and by communities, and to end the inequalities within and among countries that are barriers to ending AIDS;

Calls upon all States and relevant United Nations funds, programmes and specialized agencies, and international and regional intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, to continue to take all steps necessary to ensure respect for and the protection and fulfilment of all human rights and to prevent and eliminate stigma, discrimination, violence and abuse in the context of HIV as an essential part of efforts to achieve the goal of universal access to HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment, care and support;

Urges States to accelerate the integration of HIV services into universal health coverage and resilient health and social protection systems, and to ensure full and unimpeded access for all persons living with, presumed to be living with, at risk of or affected by HIV, including key populations, to HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment, care and support, in a public health environment free from discrimination, harassment or persecution against those seeking HIV-related services, while respecting and protecting their right to privacy, confidentiality and free and informed consent;

Also urges States to put in place societal enablers, including enabling laws, policies, public education campaigns and anti-stigma training for health-care workers and law enforcement officers that dispel the stigma and discrimination that still surrounds HIV;

Further urges States to bring their laws, policies and practices, including their strategies for implementing the HIV- and other health-related Sustainable Development Goals, fully into compliance with their obligations under international human rights law, and to review or repeal those that are discriminatory or that adversely affect the successful, effective and equitable delivery of, and access to, HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment, care and support programmes for all persons living with, presumed to be living with, at risk of or affected by HIV, including key populations;

Urges States to tackle discriminatory attitudes and policies towards persons living with, presumed to be living with, at risk of or affected by HIV, including those co-infected by tuberculosis, including by leveraging the potential of “Undetectable = Untransmissible (U = U)”,⁵ and to ensure their access to prevention, diagnosis, treatment, care and support services;

Calls upon States to end impunity for human rights violations and abuses against persons living with, at risk of or affected by HIV by meaningfully engaging and ensuring access to justice for them, providing legal literacy programmes, increasing their access to legal support and representation, and expanding sensitization training for judges, law enforcement officers, health-care workers, social workers and other duty bearers;

Calls upon States, in the context of HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment, care and support, to provide human rights education and training for health-care workers, the police, law enforcement officers and prison staff, and other relevant professions, with a special focus on non-discrimination, free and informed consent and respect for the will and preferences of all, confidentiality and privacy, and non-harassment, so as to allow outreach and other service activities and to exchange best practices in this regard;

Urges States to eliminate all forms of sexual and gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence, by adopting and enforcing laws, changing gender stereotypes and negative social norms, perceptions and practices, and providing tailored services that address multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and violence faced by women living with, at risk of or affected by HIV;

Calls upon States to address the inequities and vulnerabilities faced by children affected by or living with HIV, providing those children and their families with social protection, support and rehabilitation, including social and psychological rehabilitation and care, paediatric services and medicines, free from stigma and discrimination, and intensifying efforts to eliminate vertical transmission and to develop and provide early diagnosis tools, child-friendly medicine combinations and new treatments for children, particularly for infants living in resource-limited settings, and building, where needed, and supporting social security systems that protect them;

Urges States to address the specific needs of adolescents and young people, especially girls and young women, in the response to HIV as a key element in efforts to achieve an AIDS-free generation, to develop accessible, available and affordable primary health-care services of high quality, including sexual and reproductive health services, as well as education programmes on sexual and reproductive health, including those related to sexually transmitted infections, and to strengthen efforts in this regard, including by removing obstacles, such as age of consent laws, to access for adolescents and young people to HIV-related and sexual and reproductive health services and by ensuring the active involvement of adolescents and young people living with or affected by HIV in the response;

Calls upon States to accelerate efforts to scale up scientifically accurate, age-appropriate education on sexual and reproductive health, relevant to cultural contexts, that provides adolescent girls and boys and young women and men, in and out of school, consistent with their evolving capacities, with information on sexual and reproductive health, sexuality and comprehensive HIV prevention, gender equality and women’s empowerment, human rights, and physical, psychological and pubertal development, to enable them to build self-esteem and risk reduction skills and to empower them in their decision-making, communication and development of respectful relationships, in order to enable them to protect themselves from HIV infection;

Encourages the exchange, among countries and regions, of information, research, evidence, best practices and experiences, and subregional, regional, interregional and global cooperation and coordination, with a view to implementing measures and meeting commitments relating to the global response to HIV and AIDS, in particular the commitments contained in the Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS adopted by the General Assembly in 2021, with developed countries and those in a position to do so taking the lead to facilitate the voluntary transfer of financial resources and technology on mutually agreed terms and to promote capacity-building where necessary;

Calls upon States to take all the measures necessary to prevent, diagnose and treat HIV and its co-infections and comorbidities, and to ensure access to safe, effective and affordable medicines, health technologies, diagnosis and treatment for all, without discrimination, in the context of epidemics such as those of HIV and AIDS, which is fundamental to the full realization of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health;

Urges States to break the cycles of HIV transmission by ensuring that all people receive adequate HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment, care and support throughout their life cycles, including specialized care for HIV and other chronic conditions linked to ageing, response to drug-resistant strains of HIV, and resistance to antiretrovirals as well as antimicrobial resistance, and, in this context, to establish effective systems for monitoring, preventing and responding to the emergence of drug-resistant strains of HIV and antimicrobial resistance;

Also urges States to address the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and the specific health-care needs experienced by migrant and mobile populations, and by refugees and crisis-affected populations, in the context of HIV and to eliminate stigma, discrimination and violence, to review policies related to restrictions on entry on the basis of HIV status with a view to eliminating such restrictions and the return of people on the basis of their HIV status, and to support their access to HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment, care and support;

Further urges States to ensure access to and the use of the full range of HIV interventions, including by tailoring combination HIV prevention and HIV diagnosis, treatment, care and outreach services to meet the diverse needs of key populations and all persons living with HIV, including in prisons and other custodial settings;

Urges States to accelerate efforts to collect, use and share granular data, as applicable, that are disaggregated by income, sex, mode of transmission, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, marital status, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts in a manner that fully respects confidentiality and the human rights of persons living with, at risk of or affected by HIV and other beneficiaries, and to strengthen national capacity to collect, use and analyse such data, including through technical, financial and capacity-building support for developing countries, including least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States, to further strengthen the capacity of national statistical authorities and bureaux;

Encourages States, United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, international, regional and non-governmental organizations, national human rights institutions and other relevant stakeholders to ensure the meaningful participation of persons living with or affected by HIV and of key populations both in decision-making processes relating to, and in the planning, implementation and monitoring of, policies and programmes on HIV;

Urges States to commit to the greater involvement of persons living with HIV and AIDS and to empower communities of persons living with, at risk of or affected by HIV, including women, adolescents and young people and including community-led organizations, to play their critical leadership roles in the HIV response by ensuring that relevant global, regional, national and subnational networks and other affected communities are included in HIV-response decision-making, planning, implementing and monitoring and are provided with sufficient technical and financial support;

Urges the international community to continue to assist developing countries in promoting the full realization of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, including through access to medicines, in particular essential medicines, vaccines and other prevention technologies, diagnostics and medical devices that are affordable, safe, efficacious and of quality, and through financial and technical support and training of personnel, while recognizing that the primary responsibility for respecting, protecting and fulfilling all human rights rests with States, and to recognize the fundamental importance of the voluntary transfer of environmentally sound technologies and financial resources on favourable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed;

Urges States to fulfil their commitment to ensuring global accessibility, availability and affordability of safe, effective and quality-assured medicines, including generics, vaccines, diagnostics and other health technologies to prevent, diagnose and treat HIV infection and its co-infections and comorbidities, by urgently removing, where feasible, all barriers, including those related to regulations, policies and practices that hamper access to health technologies and objectives, and promoting the utilization of all available tools to reduce prices of health technologies and costs associated with lifelong chronic care, and to promote fair and equitable allocation of health products among and within countries to advance efforts to safeguard the full realization of the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health;

Calls upon the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and its co-sponsor organizations to support countries in addressing the legal, social, economic, political and structural drivers of the AIDS epidemic, including through the promotion of all human rights and of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls;

Requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a report, in consultation with Governments, civil society, community-led organizations and other stakeholders, describing the action being taken and recommending action to be intensified or initiated to meet the innovative targets on societal enablers, as recognized in the Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS adopted by the General Assembly in 2021, and to address the remaining gaps, and to present the report to the Human Rights Council at its fiftieth session;

Also requests the High Commissioner to invite contributions to the report by Member States and all other stakeholders, including relevant United Nations bodies, agencies, funds and programmes, the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, in particular the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, the treaty bodies, regional human rights and health organizations and bodies, national human rights institutions and civil society, including persons living with, presumed to be living with, at risk of or affected by HIV.