World AIDS Day - Statement by the High Commissioner for Human Rights

30 November 2001



Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
May I begin by saying what an honour it is to be back here at the House of Commons today. As we recognise World AIDS Day, I welcome the opportunity to meet those of you who are at the forefront of the struggle against the epidemic : people living with HIV and AIDS, honourable Members of Parliament, AIDS service organisations, NGOs and members of the media.
I am grateful to the National AIDS Trust and the All Party Parliamentary Group on AIDS here in London for co-hosting this meeting. The NAT has shown impressive leadership in its tireless efforts to promote a better understanding of HIV and AIDS, and to prevent its further spread and impact. I congratulate you on the launch of your media campaign against AIDS-related stigma and discrimination.
The All-Party Group is a model for how parliamentarians can work together to ensure an effective national response, based on respect for human rights. In the United Kingdom this is being achieved through successful public education initiatives, needle exchange programmes, condom distribution and voluntary HIV testing measures. The national response in Britain has recognised the links between AIDS, poverty and development around the world, and the responsibility the international community has to addressing these links.
HIV/AIDS is one of the greatest human rights and health challenges facing us today. We are all- too familiar with the statistics : an estimated 36 million people are infected worldwide ; 22 million have already died ; around 14,000 people are infected every single day around the world. These are staggering figures. But what they don't reveal are the countless individual stories of people whose rights are denied as a result of their HIV status; of the children orphaned by AIDS; of women who suffer discrimination, like health worker Gugu Dlamini, who was stoned to death for having disclosed her HIV status; and of the HIV-positive men and women living in poverty without basic health services or access to medication, treatment and care.
This year's World AIDS Day must be a rallying cry to all of us to show that we do care about the children, women and men behind the statistics. It must be a challenge to us to work together as partners - as teachers, human rights activists, health care workers, politicians, business people, and religious leaders - to confront the taboos associated with HIV/AIDS. Together we can challenge the attitudes and beliefs that lead to discrimination and inequality. We must encourage open and inclusive discussion on the difficult issues surrounding the AIDS epidemic, including discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, race, poverty, and HIV and AIDS status.
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. This requires us to uncover and address the root causes of vulnerability to HIV infection. It means empowering women and girls to make decisions about their own sexuality. It means ensuring the right to freedom of expression, information and association for individuals infected with and affected by HIV and AIDS. It means ensuring equal access to medication and effective health services. It means respecting the rights of all people B irrespective of their sexual orientation B to freely associate and express themselves. As UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot has stated, " this is not only the right thing to do: experience over the past twenty years tells us it is also the only pragmatic, practical solution to containing the spread of the epidemic and alleviating its impact. "
As you will know the Secretary-General Kofi Annan has named the fight against HIV/AIDS as a priority issue for the international community. Important commitments have been made already. Let me draw your attention to these:


At the General Assembly Special Session on AIDS in June, States committed themselves to the realisation of human rights as an essential part of the international response to the epidemic. They agreed on goals and targets based on human rights law and principles in four areas: prevention of new infections, provision of improved care, support and treatment for those infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS, reduction of vulnerability, and mitigation of the social and economic impact of HIV/AIDS. States also agreed on the need to address the factors that make individuals vulnerable to HIV infection, including poverty, lack of education, discrimination, lack of information and commodities for protection, and sexual exploitation of women, girls and boys.


At the World Conference against Racism, States recognised HIV/AIDS status as a source of discrimination and 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 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.


Member States of the WTO recently adopted a Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health , which sends an important signal on the need to balance intellectual property rights against public health priorities for developing countries. The Declaration stresses the need for TRIPS to be interpreted in a manner that supports States' right to protect public health and to promote access to medicines. The Declaration mentions in particular HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, all diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries.


And many States have made pledges to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. This fund should allow additional resources to be mobilised to assist developing countries in addressing the challenges raised by these diseases.
All of these commitments encourage respect for the human rights of those infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS. My Office is working closely with UNAIDS to build on these commitments and to promote an effective and sustainable human rights response to the epidemic. Our approach is based on the following three elements:



Ensuring respect, protection and fulfillment of the human rights of people infected with, affected by or vulnerable to HIV, based on the principles of non-discrimination, equality, participation and accountability. This includes, for example, empowering women and girls by ensuring respect for their human rights, and particularly their right to make decisions about their own sexuality. It means ensuring that policies related to HIV testing are based on informed consent, on a confidential basis and accompanied by appropriate counselling.


Creating the social and economic conditions to enable individuals and communities to exercise prevention, treatment and care options when they are available. This means ensuring the right to freedom of expression, information and association for all people, and in particular for those most affected by HIV and AIDS. This means ensuring that access to affordable HIV medication, care and treatment is available on an equal basis.


Addressing the needs of particularly vulnerable groups, including men who have sex with men, injecting drug users, women and men in prostitution, children, migrants and trafficked persons, minorities, indigenous peoples, and prisoners - as well as of the individuals and communities responding to the epidemic.


In order to achieve these objectives, OHCHR is working to increase accountability on HIV/AIDS-related human rights. Together with UNAIDS, we published the 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.
I am delighted to note that the All-Party Parliamentary Group has used the Guidelines to analyse the British response to the epidemic and to recommend ways for the Government to do more to protect and promote the human rights of people living with HIV and those vulnerable to it. The Group's inquiry into the United Kingdom' s response to the International Guidelines sets a good example for others to follow. As the inquiry itself concludes, « 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.



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