32/25 Summary of the Human Rights Council panel discussion on the progress in and challenges of addressing human rights issues in the context of efforts to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030



Human Rights Council Thirty-second session

Agenda items 2 and 3

Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner

for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the

High Commissioner and the Secretary-General

Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,

political, economic, social and cultural rights,

including the right to development

Summary of the Human Rights Council panel discussion on the progress in and challenges of addressing human rights issues in the context of efforts to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030

Summary

The present summary report was prepared in accordance with resolution 30/8 of the

Human Rights Council, in which the Council decided to convene a panel discussion on the

progress in and challenges of addressing human rights issues in the context of efforts to end

the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030. The panel discussion, organized by the Office of the

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, was held on 11 March 2016, at the

thirty-first session of the Council. Pursuant to resolution 30/8, the Council invited the

General Assembly to take the summary report into consideration ahead of and during the

high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS due to take place in June 2016. The panel discussion and

the contribution of the Council were also highlighted in Assembly resolution 70/228 on

modalities for organizing the high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS.

Contents

Page

I. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 3

II. Summary of the discussion .............................................................................................................. 4

A. Opening remarks ...................................................................................................................... 4

B. Overview of the presentations by the panellists ....................................................................... 5

C. Interventions by representatives of States members of the Human Rights Council,

observer States and other observers ......................................................................................... 7

III. Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................... 9

IV. Summary recommendations for the high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS ........................................... 10

I. Introduction

1. In its resolution 30/8, the Human Rights Council decided to convene a panel

discussion at its thirty-first session on the progress in and challenges of addressing human

rights issues in the context of efforts to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030, to coincide

with the twentieth anniversary of the International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human

Rights. The Council invited the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to

liaise with States and stakeholders, including relevant United Nations bodies, agencies,

funds and programmes, treaty bodies, special procedure mandate holders, national human

rights institutions and civil society, with a view to ensuring their participation in the panel

discussion.

2. Also in its resolution 30/8, the Human Rights Council requested the High

Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a summary report of the panel discussion and

to submit it to the Council at its thirty-second session and invited the General Assembly to

take the summary report into consideration ahead of and during the high-level meeting on

HIV/AIDS due to take place in June 2016. Pursuant to that request, the present report is

intended to support the commitment to ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030, and to

contribute to the discussions at the high-level meeting. The panel discussion and the

contribution of the Council were also highlighted in Assembly resolution 70/228 on

modalities for organizing the high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS.

3. The interactive panel discussion was chaired by the Vice-President of the Human

Rights Council, Bertrand de Crombrugghe, and was moderated by the Permanent

Representative of Mozambique to the United Nations Office and other international

organizations in Geneva, Pedro Afonso Comissário. The Deputy High Commissioner for

Human Rights, Kate Gilmore, delivered an opening statement, after which a three-minute

video entitled 15 Years of the AIDS Response 2000-20151 was screened. The Deputy

Executive Director of Programme at the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS

(UNAIDS), Luiz Loures, delivered a keynote address. The panellists were the Public

Campaign Officer at the Indonesia AIDS Coalition, Ayu Oktariani; ,the Minister for

Gender, Children and Social Protection, of Ghana, Nana Oye Lithur; the Vice-President of

Health Production and Innovation, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Ministry of Health

of Brazil, and member of the High-level Panel on Access to Medicines, Jorge Bermudez;

the Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria,

Mark Dybul; and the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the

highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Dainius Pūras.

4. Following the panellists’ brief opening remarks, States, national human rights

institutions, non-governmental organizations and other observers were encouraged to

intervene by asking questions, making comments, and sharing good practices and

challenges as well as recommendations on the way forward. The panel discussion provided

a platform for experts and representatives of the populations affected to review the progress

that had been made in addressing human rights issues in the context of efforts to end the

HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030, which included successes, best practices and lessons learned.

1 Produced by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

II. Summary of the discussion

A. Opening remarks

5. In her opening remarks, the Deputy High Commissioner said that 20 years on from

the International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights being issued, much progress

had been made, compared to the early days when the response to HIV/AIDS was

characterized by fear and panic. She emphasized that HIV/AIDS could today be treated as a

chronic infection if antiretroviral treatment and effective health-care services were available

and accessible, and drew attention to the evidence that human rights approaches enhanced

the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS programmes.

6. However, multiple human rights challenges stood in the way of ending the AIDS

epidemic, and a lack of respect for human rights led to poor health outcomes. In that regard,

she noted that poverty, inequality and discrimination were intimately linked to the spread of

HIV, and that stigma and discrimination remained major obstacles to those affected by

HIV/AIDS being diagnosed, accessing treatment or disclosing an HIV-positive status.

For example, societal norms and practices that relegated women to lower standing in

society accounted, in part, for poor health outcomes for women, and mortality rates due to

AIDS continued to grow among adolescents during the period in which the Millennium

Development Goals were being implemented, in spite of declines among other age groups.

7. The Deputy High Commissioner emphasized that, in order to realize human rights

for all and leave no one behind, it was crucial to overcome the discrimination and barriers

to accessing health care that were faced by marginalized population groups, which must be

enabled to participate in the design and implementation of policies to address HIV/AIDS.

The human rights principles of non-discrimination, access to information, privacy and

confidentiality were especially valuable in that regard.

8. She noted that a lack of universal health coverage and a lack of access to medicines

were human rights concerns of central importance in the response to HIV/AIDS. From a

human rights perspective, universal health coverage required conditions in which every

person in need had access to appropriate medical attention and services, and it was crucial

to go beyond simply expanding coverage and to ensure a focus on equitable access for all.

She stressed that, while scientific freedom had allowed for major advancements in health

technologies, it came with the associated right for everyone to be able to enjoy the benefits

of scientific progress and its applications. And yet, intellectual property rights had been

allowed to take precedence over the protection of public health, severely limiting access to

life-saving and health-preserving medicines for persons living with HIV/AIDS.

9. She remarked that, based on the recommendation of the Global Commission on HIV

and the Law, the Secretary-General had established a high-level panel to propose solutions

to remedy policy incoherence in this area, and noted that the Office of the High

Commissioner for Human Rights was an active member of the expert advisory group

supporting the panel. In closing, she recalled that human rights considerations had been

vital in advancing in the fight against HIV/AIDS and were key to achieving further

progress. She called for accountability, with the involvement of civil society, human rights

activists and people living with HIV/AIDS, for the fulfilment of the obligation to end

stigma and discrimination and for governments to make health care available to all those in

need.

10. In his keynote address, Dr. Loures indicated that there was now a historic

opportunity, which could not be missed, to end AIDS within our lifetimes. He identified the

upcoming high-level meeting in New York as the opportunity to establish the commitments

that would be required in order to put the world on the path to ending AIDS as a public

health threat, and invited the Human Rights Council and ambassadors to ensure that human

rights were at the centre of the discussions at the General Assembly. He pointed out that

because the tools were available, there was a collective responsibility to end AIDS by 2030.

Human rights were more central to the fight against AIDS today than ever before, as the

history of success against the epidemic had been uneven. While much progress had been

made, that has not been the case for everyone. He said that failure to protect human rights,

particularly of those most vulnerable to and affected by the AIDS epidemic, was now more

than ever making the difference between life and death. He stressed that unless we removed

the legal and policy barriers that resulted in people being left behind, we would not be able

to put an end to the AIDS epidemic.

11. He emphasized that the current priority was to address the fundamental factors that

were preventing progress against AIDS, and that the challenge today was to make human

rights work for people. He stressed that discrimination in health-care settings was

unacceptable, and yet HIV-positive people continued to be denied health services and to be

discriminated against. He also noted that, since we had the tools to end AIDS, the outcomes

for persons living with HIV should not be determined by who they were or where they

lived. Whereas geography was less important now than in the past in determining access to

treatment, vulnerability to HIV and access to services were determined more than ever by

gender, sexual orientation, or the fact of being a detainee, an injecting drug user or a sex

worker. He noted that the current rates of AIDS among sex workers in some sub-Saharan

African countries were unacceptably high. He also stressed that higher HIV vulnerability

among women and girls or among gay men and transgender people was less about biology

than about the social, legal and human rights challenges faced by these populations.

12. While citing the overall progress in the HIV/AIDS response, with some 16 million

people on antiretroviral treatment today, Dr. Loures recalled that 35 million deaths had

been caused by HIV/AIDS and lessons must be learned. In spite of important progress in

the AIDS response, the paradox was that, while the science had advanced, the solution was

yet to materialize. He said that lack of respect for and protection of human rights was the

main determinant of the epidemic. He also noted that there was a looming treatment crisis

associated with the ongoing inadequate delivery of treatment and inadequate access to

treatment, due to costs and a lack of adequately equipped systems. He recalled the

successes in bringing about a global shift in the HIV/AIDS response over the past 20 years,

the greatest driver of which had been social movements. Civil society organizations, in

particular those representing people living with HIV, had been at the forefront of the

progress achieved in the AIDS response, from demanding the protection of their human

rights to setting up programmes to improve access to justice and health services.

B. Overview of the presentations by the panellists

13. The moderator, Mr. Comissário, spoke of the twentieth anniversary of the

International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights and emphasized that the vision

now was to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. He reiterated that the panel discussion was

taking place in the context of preparations for the high-level meeting in New York in June

2016, and that the composition of the panel reflected efforts undertaken by civil society,

experts, the United Nations entities concerned, Governments, and activists on the ground.

14. Ms. Oktariani described her experience of living with HIV, from her initial

diagnosis to her current role as an advocate for the empowerment of her community and for

the voiceless. She emphasized that efforts to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic could not be

separated from fulfilment of the human rights of the people affected by it. Women, young

people and children were those who were most often left behind due to failures to provide

the necessary treatment to them, which was unjust and needed to be rectified with

programmes to address their specific vulnerabilities.

15. She stressed that efforts to scale up HIV testing and treatment services would remain

devoid of meaning and elusive without a full recognition of human rights in AIDS

programmes and policies. The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community was still

living in fear, and the criminalization of drug users needed to be eliminated. She

emphasized that access to affordable medicines was a human right, and that people had to

be put ahead of profits. In that regard, she pointed out how trade agreements such as the

Trans-Pacific Partnership could endanger access to life-saving commodities.

16. Ms. Lithur presented her experience of fighting HIV/AIDS in Ghana, which had

included working as a human rights lawyer, and supporting people affected by HIV/AIDS

at her human rights clinic. She recalled that the clients for whom she had been an advocate

were not able to access legal remedies or redress for human rights violations. They faced

increased vulnerabilities and were often the victims of various forms of human rights

violations. She noted that gender-based violence was prevalent, in a context where

discrimination and poverty were widespread. For example, police officers tasked with

enforcing the law and protecting citizens were often involved in sexual assaults on young

sex workers, while service providers in health care, social services and law enforcement

were unable to assist.

17. Speaking about what the most effective strategies were, Ms. Lithur referred to

advocacy, research, direct interventions at all levels, and the use of international, regional

and national laws and conventions. She had used these strategies to strengthen the legal and

policy framework, and had conducted a comprehensive legislative audit in Ghana to

identify gaps and initiate action to repeal, amend and review laws, in order to create a more

favourable legal environment. The audit report had been instrumental in creating the

national HIV policy in Ghana in 2011, and an HIV law under consideration by the Cabinet.

She had also been supported by the United Nations Population Fund to research human

rights violations carried out against female sex workers by police officers. This had led to

the development of curricula and then to the training of police officers and key populations,

on HIV/AIDS. She had also conducted the first-ever training programme, for service

providers, on key populations and human rights, including for the Department of Social

Welfare, the Police Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit, and the Commission on

Human Rights and Administrative Justice. A human rights clinic had been set up in 2008,

and by the end of 2015 it had provided support to 1,568 persons. Finally, she noted the

establishment of a pro bono lawyers’ network comprising 100 lawyers registered to deal

with HIV-related cases.

18. Dr. Bermudez said that barriers to access to medicines included intellectual property

rules, monopolies, oligopolies and unaffordability. The world had been struggling fiercely

for 20 years to strike a balance between trade and health, or between innovation and health,

and it had failed. Brazil was one of the first countries in the world to establish a national

HIV/AIDS response programme, in 1985. The Brazilian response was based on a human

rights approach, with efforts to ensure universal access to prevention and treatment,

including through special measures to promote non-discrimination and civil society

participation. A comprehensive approach, whereby both prevention and care would be

addressed through local public production and through public-public and public-private

partnerships, was currently at risk due to the looming treatment crisis.

19. The appointment of 16 members to the High-level Panel on Access to Medicines, in

December 2015, with two former presidents as Co-Chairs, was an indication of the

importance that the Secretary-General of the United Nations placed on the issue of access

to medicines, and a recognition that in spite of all the progress made in health care, millions

of people had been left behind. The scope of the panel’s mandate was to make proposals on

how to address policy incoherence in public health, trade, the justifiable rights of inventors,

and human rights. Today, the world was facing innovation restricted to the rich and health

systems in a state of near-collapse, and not only in the Global South. This situation was

characterized by high and unjustifiable prices of new products and the unaffordability of

new technologies. The international community needed to be bold and find ways to

overcome the barriers, which included regulatory and intellectual property barriers, and to

redouble its efforts to strengthen health systems and ensure healthy lives for all, in line with

the ambitious agenda committed to in the Sustainable Development Goals.

20. Dr. Dybul stated that the Global Fund had disbursed nearly $4 billion to support

local programmes that had prevented the premature deaths of millions of people from HIV,

tuberculosis and malaria. There had been great progress, he said, with almost every country

now implementing prevention and treatment programmes. HIV did not affect people

equally, and the international community had to move towards being more inclusive. The

Global Fund had had a human rights objective in its strategy since 2011. In many settings,

the impact of the Global Fund’s grants was greatly reduced because of human rights-related

barriers to services, such as women and girls being denied access to testing and treatment.

21. Dr. Dybul noted that UNAIDS, which was a close partner of the Global Fund, had

defined seven key programmes that reduced human rights-related barriers to services,

including programmes for legal literacy, also referred to as “know your rights”

programmes. However, investment in those programmes remained minimal. Introducing

and scaling up programmes that removed human rights barriers to accessing services would

be among the main objectives of the Global Fund’s strategic framework for 2017 to 2022.

Efforts would be concentrated on 15 to 20 countries that had particular needs as well as

particular opportunities for introducing and scaling up programmes. The aim was increased

uptake and ongoing use of services through decreased levels of stigma and discrimination.

22. Mr. Pūras underlined the role of health-care settings as spaces where key

populations should have access to the services and information they needed. All over the

world, people faced various forms of discrimination in relation to health care. Evidence

showed that health-care settings were among the environments where people most often

experienced HIV-related stigma and discrimination. Such discrimination was often linked,

among other factors, to gender, race, socioeconomic status, age, sexual orientation, gender

identity and expression, drug use or HIV status. Some of the most common manifestations

of discrimination in health-care settings included the denial of health care and unjust

barriers in service provision, inferior quality of care, disrespect, abuse and other forms of

mistreatment, and extreme violations of autonomy and bodily integrity. Evidence had

shown that the interventions that worked the best were those that were based on a strong

human rights approach, and that quality health care had to be provided in a timely manner

without discrimination.

C. Interventions by representatives of States members of the Human

Rights Council, observer States and other observers

23. In the ensuing discussion, contributions were made, in the following order, by

representatives of Brazil on behalf of Colombia, Mozambique, Portugal and Thailand,

Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Dominican Republic on

behalf of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, Kuwait on behalf of the

Group of Arab States, the European Union, Portugal on behalf of the Community of

Portuguese-speaking Countries, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Egypt, Poland,

Colombia, Morocco, India, the United States of America, Chile, Denmark, Paraguay,

Estonia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Namibia, El Salvador, Switzerland, Monaco, the Islamic

Republic of Iran, Malawi, Panama, Australia, Austria, Ecuador, Uruguay and Cuba. Some

contributions were not delivered due to lack of time, including those of Albania, Algeria,

Angola, the Bahamas, Belarus, Belgium, China, Ethiopia, France, Georgia, the Holy See,

Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian

Federation, South Africa, Swaziland, Thailand, Tunisia, the Bolivarian Republic of

Venezuela, and Viet Nam.

24. Representatives of the following non-governmental organizations and

intergovernmental organizations contributed to the discussions: the Elizabeth Glaser

Pediatric AIDS Foundation (in a joint statement with Caritas Internationalis and World

Vision International), the Center for Reproductive Rights (in a joint statement with the

ATHENA Network, the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS and

Vivo Positivo), the International Harm Reduction Association, the International HIV/AIDS

Alliance (in a joint statement with the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and

Intersex Association, the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations,

the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, the Global Network of People Living with HIV,

the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the International AIDS Society, the

Grandmothers’ Advocacy Network and the Humanist Institute for Cooperation with

Developing Countries), the World Young Women’s Christian Association, and Action

Canada for Population and Development.

25. The World Food Programme and the International Labour Organization also took

the floor. Due to a lack of time, contributions were also registered but not delivered from

the International Development Law Organization, the United Nations Office for Project

Services, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Health Organization and

the United Nations Population Fund.

26. All speakers reaffirmed their commitment to ending HIV/AIDS, and there was a

broad consensus that human rights should be at the core of global, regional and national

strategies to end the epidemic. Several delegates emphasized that ending HIV/AIDS would

require international human rights obligations to be fulfilled, and access to health care,

treatment and medicines for all to be promoted. They stressed the importance of

international cooperation in that regard, with some pointing out that in order for no one to

be left behind, the international community needed to redouble its efforts, strengthening its

cooperation on universal access to medicines and antiretroviral treatment. Speakers

emphasized that the human right to health should be fulfilled for everyone, without

discrimination, and that in order to reach the many in need who still did not have affordable

access to antiretroviral drugs, States could make use of the flexibilities under the Trade-

Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement.

27. Several speakers underlined the importance of ending the discrimination, stigma and

violence associated with HIV/AIDS, and identified a need for tailored approaches targeting

those with heightened vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, including children and adolescents,

women and girls, sex workers, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, people who

injected drugs and prison inmates. Several speakers stressed the importance of eliminating

punitive laws against those most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, for example the laws that

criminalized, inter alia, drug users, same-sex relations, sex workers, and HIV non-

disclosure, exposure or transmission. It was also noted that punitive approaches in relation

to drug use were impeding global efforts to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

28. Speakers pointed out that in order to bring about an effective, human rights-based

response and end HIV/AIDS by 2030, a strengthened gender focus was needed. They

identified gender-based inequality, discrimination and violence as causal factors in the

continuing spread of HIV/AIDS, and stressed that it was necessary to end gender-based

discrimination, for example by promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women

and girls in society and ensuring access to sexual and reproductive health and rights. Some

speakers also noted the obligation of States to uphold children’s rights to health and life, by

tackling the mother-to-child HIV transmission rate and by enacting stronger legislation to

fight child exploitation. Others drew attention to the protection of human rights at work as

being central to the fight against HIV/AIDS, including through the implementation of

international standards that provided protections against workplace discrimination and

prohibited mandatory HIV testing or screening as a precondition for employment.

29. Many speakers described their national, regional and international efforts to end the

HIV/AIDS epidemic, citing specific examples of national progress that had resulted from

using strategies and approaches based on human rights. These were, among others, the

scaling up of resources for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care; multisectoral,

regional and other partnership approaches, alongside integrated strategic planning across

service sectors; the provision of voluntary, anonymous and free testing for HIV; the

provision of free and effective antiretroviral therapy to all HIV-positive patients; the

provision of universal access to health care and to prevention programmes; sexual and

reproductive health-care strategies; programmes to prevent mother-to-child transmission;

programmes designed to tackle stigma and discrimination; and community-based,

participatory approaches to prevention, treatment and care, in which those affected by

HIV/AIDS were seen not as a problem but rather as part of the solution.

30. Other speakers described the ongoing challenges that still impeded access to health

care and antiretroviral treatment for all those in need. They pointed out that the reasons why

many people were still being left behind in the HIV/AIDS response included inadequate

resources and capacity at the national level, the high pricing of antiretroviral treatment and

diagnostics, and insufficient progress in international cooperation on access to medicines.

Speakers also emphasized that addressing discrimination, which continued to drive

infection rates, was difficult. Some speakers noted that legislation and policies were not

enough to tackle discrimination and other factors driving the epidemic. Moreover, speakers

stressed that the situation of certain vulnerable groups made it particularly difficult to

ensure their access to HIV treatment, and to uphold their sexual and reproductive rights.

Some also noted that the Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Intensifying Our Efforts

to Eliminate HIV and AIDS, of 2011, remained an important agreed framework that

reaffirmed “the need for all countries to implement the commitments and pledges in the

present Declaration consistent with national laws, national development priorities and

international human rights”.2

III. Conclusions

31. In their concluding comments, the panellists re-emphasized the imperative of

promoting quality health care and eliminating stigma and discrimination, through a

pragmatic approach guided by human rights. They emphasized that the Sustainable

Development Goals could only be achieved if non-discrimination and gender equality

were also achieved. In that regard, the panellists recommended a long-term approach

in which human rights were advanced as a priority, actions were targeted at the

groups and populations that were affected the most, and legal challenges and

opportunities were also prioritized. They identified Ghana and Mozambique as

examples of countries in which human rights progress had been achieved through

legislative measures, and urged the African region to tackle gender issues and other

key issues in which traditional beliefs and practices played a role, as the imperative

was to save human lives.

2 See General Assembly resolution 65/277, para. 2.

32. Panellists urged States to take a stand against economic and political pressure

and to put people first, combining the elimination of punitive laws against the groups

most at risk with increased funding of human rights-based approaches and with

access to the necessary medicines, science and technologies. They noted that access to

science and technology was a global issue that required international cooperation.

To make the aims of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 90-90-90

treatment target3 attainable, it would be essential for the international community to

cooperate in order to bring about access to new technologies. Affordability and access

to medicines were major challenges to ending AIDS and other global epidemics.

Panellists urged States to be bold and make use of the Trade-Related Aspects of

Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement flexibilities. They noted that TRIPS

plus agreements should be discontinued as they hampered access to medicines, and

they underlined the importance of the work of the High-level Panel on Access to

Medicines.

33. The panellists emphasized that the Sustainable Development Goals called for

integrated and holistic approaches, and that such approaches would be indispensable

to the realization of universal health coverage. They noted that the present crisis in

health systems and in access to treatment was also an opportunity for the AIDS

response to be strengthened through universal health coverage delivered on the basis

of accountability, solidarity and collaboration, in which the priority was for no one to

be left behind.

IV. Summary recommendations for the high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS

34. In its resolution 30/8, the Human Rights Council invited the General Assembly

to take the present report into consideration ahead of and during the high-level

meeting on HIV/AIDS to take place in 2016.4 In addition, Assembly resolution 70/228

highlighted the importance of the contribution of the Human Rights Council to the

high-level meeting. Accordingly, the present summary of recommendations is

intended to support the commitment to ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 and to

contribute to the discussions during the high-level meeting.

35. It was emphasized at the panel discussion that HIV/AIDS remained among the

greatest challenges of our time, and that the lives of human beings and respect for

human dignity were at stake. Today, there was a historic opportunity that could not

be missed, to put an end to AIDS within our lifetimes. The international community

had made great progress in the fight to end HIV/AIDS, but much more needed to be

done both individually and collectively. Progress to date had been uneven, and the

current challenge was to reach the many who were still being left behind. Efforts to

eliminate HIV/AIDS had, to date, proved most effective when they were rights-based.

Moreover, it was a matter of respect for human dignity that the HIV/AIDS response

should, at all levels, be designed to tackle the stigma, discrimination and violence that

continued to drive the spread of the epidemic. The panel stressed that the world would

not succeed in ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 without renewed

commitments and efforts to address the legal and human rights barriers that made

people vulnerable to HIV and blocked effective responses to the epidemic. Five salient

points were highlighted in these respects:

3 See http://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/90-90-90_en_0.pdf.

4 See Human Rights Council resolution 30/8 and General Assembly decision 68/555.

(a) The AIDS epidemic is, today more than ever, characterized by stigma

and discrimination. People living with HIV continue to face stigma and discrimination

in all sectors, including within families and communities, at the workplace and in

health-care settings. The people who are the most vulnerable to HIV, who include

women and girls, sex workers, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, people

who inject drugs and people in detention, face high levels of stigma and

discrimination. Addressing stigma and discrimination in all aspects of life and society,

including in health-care settings, is therefore the essential basis for ending AIDS by

2030.

(b) Universal health coverage is fundamental to an effective HIV/AIDS

response, and every person should have access to appropriate medical attention and

services. Beyond simply expanding coverage, it is essential to bring about equitable

access to health care for all. Rights-based health services are needed, in order to

ensure the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of treatment without

discrimination. Special approaches are needed to reach marginalized groups and

other populations who are being left behind and who face greater barriers to

accessing health care, and these groups should be enabled to participate in the design

and implementation of policies to address HIV/AIDS.

(c) Access to medicines for all is essential to ending AIDS and to realizing

the right to health. Scientific freedom, which has led to advancements in health

technologies, comes with the associated right for everyone to be able to enjoy its

benefits and applications. Intellectual property rights must not be allowed to take

precedence over public health and over the right of all persons living with HIV/AIDS

to have access to life-saving medicines. As the tools for ending AIDS are available,

they must be made accessible to all those who are in need of treatment. The human

right to health should take precedence over profit, and it is crucial that transformative

global cooperation be accelerated on the basis of the common aim of enabling access

to medicines for all.

(d) It is essential to maintain efforts to review and reform laws, policies and

practices that adversely affect the successful, effective and equitable delivery of HIV

prevention, treatment, care and support programmes to people living with HIV and

other key populations, including the laws that criminalize, inter alia, drug users,

same-sex relations, sex workers, and HIV non-disclosure, exposure and transmission.

(e) Human rights programmes that have proved successful in addressing

vulnerability to HIV, and in addressing barriers to accessing HIV treatment and

health care services, need to be scaled up and adequately funded. This should include

programmes aimed at eliminating stigma and discrimination against people living

with and affected by HIV and against their families, including by sensitizing the police

and judges, training health-care workers in non-discrimination, confidentiality and

informed consent, supporting national human rights learning campaigns, legal

literacy and legal services, and monitoring the impact of the legal environment on

HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.