The report’s title sums up its message: “Let’s follow the path of rights to end AIDS.”
“Despite considerable progress in the fight against HIV, human rights violations still prevent the world from ending AIDS,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima.
“When girls don’t have access to education, when gender-based violence goes unpunished, when people can be arrested for who they are or what they like, when a visit to a health service is dangerous because of the community they belong to, it results in people being unable to access the HIV services that are essential to saving their lives and ending the AIDS pandemic. To protect everyone’s health, we must protect the rights of all,” she added.
A mother with her two-year-old child in Ivory Coast.
More than 20% of people living with HIV still do not have access to treatment
Of the 39.9 million people living with HIV, 9.3 million still do not have access to life-saving treatment.
Last year, 630,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses and 1.3 million people worldwide newly contracted HIV. In at least 28 countries, the number of new HIV infections is increasing.
To change the trajectory of the pandemic, it is imperative that all those who need it can access lifesaving programs without fear.
Women are up to three times more likely to live with HIV
Every day in 2023, 570 young women and girls aged 15 to 24 contracted HIV.
In at least 22 countries in eastern and southern Africa, women and girls in this age group are three times more likely to live with HIV than their male counterparts.
“No girl should be deprived of the education and information she needs to stay safe. Discrimination and violence against girls must be treated as a human rights and health emergency,” said HIV activist Nomonde Ngema, 21.
On Zero Discrimination Day, UNAIDS calls on countries to review discriminatory provisions in their laws and policies and make positive changes to ensure equality, inclusion and protection for all
Laws hinder the HIV response
Criminalization and stigmatization of marginalized communities hinder access to life-saving HIV services.
Instead of punishing marginalized communities, governments must uphold their human rights
In the 2021 political declaration on HIV and AIDS, countries committed to ensuring that, by 2025, fewer than 10% of them have restrictive legal and policy frameworks that lead to refusal or to limit access to HIV-related services. However, in 2023, 63 countries still criminalize same-sex relations.
These laws hinder the response to HIV. Among gay men and other men who have sex with men, HIV prevalence is five times higher in countries that criminalize same-sex relations than in those that do not.
“Punitive laws and policies keep vulnerable people away from the help they need to prevent, test and treat HIV,” said Axel Bautista, community engagement manager at MPact Global Action for Gay Men’s Health & Rights (Global Action for Gay Men’s Health and Rights). “Instead of punishing marginalized communities, governments must uphold their human rights.”
© UNICEF/Rindra Ramasomanana
An expectant mother undergoes an HIV test in the Analanjirofo region of Madagascar.
Scientific innovations
Science continues to innovate in the fight against AIDS.
Long-acting drugs that only need to be injected a few times a year could tip the scales, but only if a human rights-based approach is taken to sharing technology to bring down prices and to enable production in all regions of the world.
“Medical tools that save lives cannot be treated as simple goods,” said Alexandra Calmy, head of the fight against HIV at the University Hospitals of Geneva. “The revolutionary therapeutic and preventative options currently being developed must be made accessible without delay to achieve universal reach.”
“We know the path to follow to build a society in which we all thrive,” said Jeanne Gapiya-Niyonzima, founder of the ANSS and the first person in Burundi to publicly announce that she was living with HIV. “If the world is to end AIDS as a public health threat, it must protect the rights of every person.”
Leaders raise their voices
Science, medicine and technology may be the ‘what’ to end AIDS, but inclusion, empathy and compassion are the ‘how’
The report includes ten essays from leaders of the global AIDS response, including Elton John, the Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, and former president of the International AIDS Society, Adeeba Kamarulzaman.
In his essay published in the UNAIDS report, Elton John writes: “I know the feeling of shame and what it can cause. As long as HIV is considered a disease for “others”, and not for “decent people”, AIDS will not be defeated. Science, medicine and technology may be the ‘what’ of ending AIDS, but inclusion, empathy and compassion are the ‘how’.
For his part, President Michael D. Higgins writes: “Ensuring that the fullness of human rights is achieved is a crucial practical necessity if we are to rid the world of the scourge of AIDS. Keeping the commitment to end AIDS as a public health threat is a political and financial choice. It is high time to choose the right path.”
