This Handbook is designed to assist national human rights institutions to integrate HIV into their mandate to protect and promote human rights. It provides a basic overview of the role of human rights in an effective response to the epidemic and suggests concrete activities that national institutions can carry out within their existing work. It also presents possibilities for engaging with the national HIV response in order to protect and promote human rights. The Handbook is primarily intended for use by staff of national human rights institutions, civil society organizations, networks of people living with HIV and national AIDS programmes. It should be read together with the International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights.