VIENNA: RIGHTS HERE, RIGHT NOW

Activists are hoping that the upcoming international AIDS conference in Vienna will make a real impact on the plight of minorities, including LGBT people, facing barriers to treatment.

With its theme of “Rights Here, Right Now,” the conference, which opens in Vienna on July 18, will bring together more than 25,000 scientists, government leaders, and AIDS activists from around the world to examine the successes and shortcomings of the global AIDS response.

“The conference is about HIV/AIDS and human rights,” said Joe Amon, director of health and human rights at the New York based Human Rights Watch. “But with 3 million new HIV infections each year, talking about rights won’t do the job. We need action and accountability.”

Advances in science and medicine will have limited impact without changing the harmful laws and policies that drive people who are at risk away from HIV testing and prevention, and that make it hard for those who need treatment to get it, Human Rights Watch said.

According to the organisation, laws in more than 160 countries criminalise specific groups or behaviours. These include laws targeting sex workers, drug users, men who have sex with men, and HIV exposure or transmission.

“Governments need to end discriminatory laws and misguided and abusive public health and criminal justice policies,” Amon said. “These laws fuel stigma and discrimination, increase the risk of HIV, and prevent HIV/AIDS services from reaching the most vulnerable populations.”

In particular, governments and international donors need to address the transmission of HIV through drug injection, Human Rights Watch said.

Outside of Sub-Saharan Africa, as many as one-third of all new HIV infections occur among people who inject drugs. Within Sub-Saharan Africa, injection drug use is increasing. In some countries, in particular Central and Eastern Europe and East Asia, statistics show that injection drug use is the primary driver of HIV epidemics.

In some countries, harm reduction measures, including opioid substitution therapy with methadone or buprenorphine and needle and syringe exchange, have virtually eliminated new HIV transmission due to drug use. Yet these lifesaving measures remain largely unavailable to the vast majority of people who need them, Human Rights Watch said.

“People who use drugs do not forfeit their human rights,” Amon said. “All individuals have a human right to obtain lifesaving health services without fear of punishment or discrimination.”

Human Rights Watch has called on delegates to the conference to ensure that policy and legal reform are accompanied by the expansion of services for vulnerable populations not yet reached in the AIDS fight.

“Governments around the world have pledged universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, and care by 2010,” Amon said. “2010 is right now. Unless we reach everyone who needs HIV services, the progress that has been made fighting AIDS will be squandered.”

HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES ARE HAMPERING THE FIGHT AGAINST HIV/AIDS