Geneva, 27 November 2008— Criminalization of adult sexual behaviour and violation of human rights of people living with HIV are hampering HIV responses across the world. UNAIDS urges countries to remove laws and policies make it difficult for people to access HIV prevention and treatment and adopt laws that protect people living with HIV from discrimination, coercion and monitoring in their private lives.
Recently, a number of countries and local bodies are considering a range of legal measures such as making homosexuality a crime, using technology to trace movements of people living with HIV, and mandatory HIV testing and forced rehabilitation of sex workers and people who are addicted to drugs. Such measures have a negative impact on delivery of HIV prevention programmes and access to treatment by people living with HIV. Not only do they violate human rights of individuals, but further stigmatize these populations.
"Homophobia - in all its forms - is one of the top five barriers to ending this epidemic, worldwide,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Dr Peter Piot. “If communities, NGOs, governments and international organizations do not respect and promote the rights of all people with diverse sexuality, we will not end AIDS."
All forms of restrictions on people living with HIV, whether it is limiting their ability to travel, monitoring their movements or criminalizing transmission of HIV, are not based on sound public health practices. It can alienate people living with HIV from society and facilitate further transmission of HIV.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment