HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS CALLS HIV/AIDS ONE OF GREATEST HUMAN RIGHTS CHALLENGES WORLD FACES

30 November 2001



HIV/AIDS is one of the greatest human rights and health challenges facing the world, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said today in London.

Speaking to a meeting hosted by the United Kingdom's National Aids Trust and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on AIDS, Mrs Robinson said the commemoration of World AIDS Day on 1 December should serve as "a rallying cry to all of us to show that we do care about the children, women and men behind the statistics". The High Commissioner recalled that an estimated 36 million people are infected worldwide; that 22 million people have already died, and that around 15,000 people are newly infected every single day around the world.

But the bleak numbers do not tell the whole story, according to Mrs. Robinson. "The good news is that we know what works. We know that by improving respect for human rights, we can go a long way to curbing the spread and alleviating the impact of the epidemic", she said. This requires, among other steps, empowering women and girls to make decisions about their own sexuality; ensuring the right to freedom of expression, information and association for individuals infected with and affected by HIV and AIDS; ensuring equal access to medication and effective health services, and respecting the rights of all people – irrespective of their sexual orientation – to freely associate and express themselves.

Pointing to international action against the pandemic, Mrs. Robinson said that at the World Conference against Racism, held in the autumn in Durban, South Africa, States had expressed their concern that people infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS belong to groups vulnerable to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. They had agreed to strengthen national institutions to promote and protect the human rights of victims of racism who are also infected with HIV/AIDS, as well as to ensure access to HIV/AIDS medication and treatment.

The High Commissioner also cited her Office's work with UNAIDS, in particular the elaboration of International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights as a tool to assist States in designing, co-ordinating and implementing practical and effective national HIV/AIDS policies and strategies.

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"I am delighted to note that the All-Party Parliamentary Group has used the Guidelines to analyse the British response to the epidemic", Mrs. Robinson said. The Group's inquiry into the United Kingdom's response concluded that « only by considering the structural reasons for the spread of the virus and its effects, only by addressing the human rights of people vulnerable to the virus, only by striving to change the social and cultural factors that drive HIV will the world be able to confront, and ultimately stop, this devastating epidemic ».

"Considering the horrific toll this disease continues to take on people in every country every day, the importance of this goal should not be underestimated", the High Commissioner concluded.


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