Human Rights, Stigma and Discrimination

Policy and Guidance Documents

SAFAIDS
Criminalising HIV in Southern Africa: fuelling the HIV Epdemic?

In an attempt to curb the spread of HIV in Southern Africa, many governments beleive that crimalizing the exposure and transmission of HIV might be an effective prevenetion strategy. However, many expert have warned again criminal law being used as such as it as it might have the counter-effect of increasing the discrimination of people livng with HIV, as well as undermining public health achievements and human rights,

SADC
Model Law on HIV&AIDS in Southern Africa, 2008

The newly adopted Model Law on HIV is a great milestone to the regional efforts to achieve commonality that seeks to provide specific guidance to the national legislators and policy makers in SADC countries with model provisions addressing the gaps in their current legal and policy framework on HIV/AIDS. Its main objective is in three fold: to serve as a guidance, a yardstick, and as an advocacy tool for legislators in the region. The Model Law on HIV integrates the protection of human rights as a key element of an effective response to HIV, apart from dealing with patterns of transmission, prevalence rates as well as specific barriers to prevention, treatment and care.

UNAIDS
Criminalization of HIV Transmission. 2008

In some countries, criminal law is being applied to those who transmit or expose others to HIV infection. there are no data indicating that the broad appliacation of criminal law to HIV transmission will achieve either criminal justice or prevent HIV transmission.

UNAIDS
Recommendations for alternative language to some problematic articles in the N'Djamena legislation on HIV. 2004

The N'Djamena law represents a positive step towards the realization of commitments made in the "Declaration of Commitment" and the "Political Declaration" and captures many elements of law that should form support for national responses to HIV. However, there are some provisions in the N'Djamena law which could benefit from reconsideration and revision so as to best meet two critical concerns in the response to the HIV epidemic: that of protecting public health and that of protecting human rights. This paper presents alternative language for some of the provisions of the N'Djamena law.

UNAIDS
Guidance Note : Addressing HIV-related Law at National Level. 2008

This Guidance Note broadly summarizes the human rights-related commitments expressed in the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS (2006). Most of these commitments need to be addressed at some level through a legal or regulatory framework and/or through law enforcement.

ILO
Digest of good legislative practices relating to HIV/AIDS in selected African countries. 2007

The Digest not only maps the legislation (broadly defined, to include case law and customary rules) currently available, but reflects the authors' findings that more needs to be done to ensure a regulatory environment where stigma and discrimination are not permitted and where human rights are respected.

UNFPA/World AIDS Campaign/IPPF/GYCA
Criminalisation of HIV - Fact sheet

In many countries the transmission of HIV can be a criminal offence-and in some countries even exposing someone to HIV can be prosecutable. Charges can be brought under a variety of laws, either specific HIV laws relating to transmission or exposure of HIV or other laws such as: murder, manslaughter, attempted murder, assault, and grievous bodily harm. In some countries a distinction is made between "reckless" and intentional transmission of HIV.

UNODC
HIV and AIDS in places of detention

This toolkit on HIV in prisons aims to provide information and guidance primarily to individuals and institutions with responsibilities for prisons and prisoners, and to people who work in and with prisons. In addition, it will assist everyone who has anything to do with prisons.

ARASA/Irish Aid/SIDA
HIV/AIDS and Human Rights in Southern Africa. An Advocacy Resource Manual. 2006

The Manual is a plain language guide to HIV/AIDS and human rights in the Southern African region. It is aimed at a wide range of people, such as paralegals, lawyers, social workers, counsellors, people working in AIDS service organisations and non-governmental organisations, educators and trade union members. It gives readers practical information on how law and policy can protect and promote human rights in the context of HIV/AIDS, and how the laws and policies in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries have met this challenge.

UNAIDS/UNHCR
International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights. 2006

This document consolidates the Guidelines adopted at the Second International Consultation on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights, held in Geneva from 23 to 25 September 1996, and revised Guideline 6 on access to prevention, treatment, care and support adopted at the Third International Consultation on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights held in Geneva from 25 to 26 July 2002. The purpose of these Guidelines is to assist States in creating a positive, rights-based response to HIV that is effective in reducing the transmission and impact of HIV and AIDS and is consistent with human rights and fundamental freedoms

World Bank
Legal Aspects of HIV/AIDS. A Guide For Policy and Law Reform. 2007

The Guide is intended to be of practical use for legal reform to support effective action against HIV/AIDS. It does not aspire to provide a complete treatment of any of the 65 topics that are addressed. Rather, the Guide seeks to alert those working on AIDS strategies and projects to opportunities for legal and policy reform and to provide them with tools to tackle the job effectively.

UNAIDS/UNHCR
Handbook on HIV and Human Rights for National Human Rights Institutions. 2007

This Handbook is designed to assist national human rights institutions to integrate HIV into their mandate to protect and promote human rights. It provides a basic overview of the role of human rights in an effective response to the epidemic and suggests concrete activities that national institutions can carry out within their existing work. It also presents possibilities for engaging with the national HIV response in order to protect and promote human rights, in the context of the "Three Ones". This Handbook is primarily intended for use by staff of national human rights institutions, civil society organizations, networks of people living with HIV and national AIDS programmes. Government institutions and other partners of national institutions may also find it useful.

UNAIDS/Inter-Parliamentary Unit/UNDP
Taking Action Against HIV. Handbook for parliamentarians no 15 2007

This Handbook emphasizes the importance of human rights because they are so essential to the response to AIDS. Parliaments have a central role to play in promulgating and overseeing the enforcement of national laws for an approach to HIV that is informed by evidence and by the International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights. We hope that this Handbook will inspire and help parliaments and parliamentarians everywhere to intensify evidence-informed political leadership and to exercise fully their legislative, budgetary and oversight powers to tackle HIV in their communities and countries.

ARASA
Draft code on HIV/AIDS and Gender, 2004

This draft code was written as a result of a resolution taken by members of the AIDS Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA). ARASA was tasked with drawing up a Code that is similar to the "SADC Code on HIV and Employment", but focused specifically on gender-related issues within the AIDS epidemic.

Best Practice and Guidelines

Open Society Institute
10 reasons to Oppose the Criminalization of HIV Exposure or Transmission

This document provides ten reasons why criminalizing HIV exposure or transmission is generally an unjust and
ineffective public policy. The obvious exception involves cases where individuals purposely or maliciously transmit HIV with the intent to harm others. In these rare cases, existing criminal laws can and should be used. In addition, governments should effectively prosecute all cases of sexual violence and ensure that rape inmarriage is recognized as a crime.

ARASA/SIDA/Irish Aid
HIV/AIDS and Human Rights in SADC. An evaluation of the steps taken by countries within the SADC region to implement the International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights. 2006

ARASA has conducted research to evaluate the extent to which the International Guidelines have been used and implemented in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. This report details the findings of that research. It focuses on the guidelines dealing with:

Structures and partnerships to support a multi-sectoral response;
A protective legal and policy framework;
Access to treatment; and
Access to legal services

UNDP
Tools for the implementation of human rights norms in the context of HIV in Eastern and Southern Africa

The tools are a series of documents stemming from the need to develop advocacy and information material on human rights-based responses to HIV in Eastern and Southern Africa. The tools are based on the premise that ensuring the implementation and respect of human rights norms and standards will contribute to reduce vulnerability to HIV transmission, challenge stigma and discrimination, and ensure access to HIV-related treatment, care and support services.

Guide
The Guide to an effective human rights response to the HIV epidemic provides background information on the human rights-based approach to HIV and analyses the international human rights obligations on states.

Checklist
The Checklist of human rights obligations to effectively address HIV and AIDS in Eastern and Southern Africa provides a series of questions for assessing a state's legal and policy response to HIV and AIDS.

Powerpoint
The PowerPoint contains a model presentation to be used as a tool to inform, advocate and sensitise target audiences.

Flipchart
The Flipchart contains a graphic and concise version of the PowerPoint, to be used as an information, advocacy and sensitization tool.

Compendium
The Compendium of key documents relating to human rights and HIV in Eastern and Southern Africa provides pertinent excerpts and full text versions of relevant treaties, legislation, policies and case law related to HIV in Eastern and Southern Africa and other regions.

UNDP/UNHCR
A Review of Regional and National Human Rights Based HIV and AIDS Policies and Frameworks in Eastern and Southern Africa. 2007

The study provides three broad recommendations for moving forward. Firstly, each country must conduct a comprehensive review of its legislation, and it should enact and reform legislation to fill gaps and correct inconsistencies in relation to AIDS and human rights. Secondly, regional economic communities and regional institutions must develop and approve model HIV and AIDS legislation to facilitate a comprehensive approach to HIV legislation and aid the push for harmonisation and domestication. Thirdly, parliamentary oversight, selfreview, and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms must be strengthened to increase implementation at the national, regional and international levels.

UNAIDS/UNODC/World Bank
HIV and Prisons in sub-Saharan Africa: Opportunities for Action. 2006

This document presents an abridged analytical summary of the inventory of existing information on HIV among prison communities in sub-Saharan Africa, identifies gaps in information and proposes a framework for action. The key finding is that there is insufficient knowledge about the prison community, both in and out of correctional facilities. What is known is alarming and underscores the importance of acting rapidly to fill information gaps in order to better assess national situations, identify good practices and support more effective national policies, programs and service delivery. The document includes a section on next steps, which can be adapted to meet differing country circumstances.

Frans Viljoen and Susan Precious (eds)
Human Rights Under Threat: Four perspectives on HIV, AIDS and the law in Southern Africa. 2007

Despite the fact that Southern Africa is the epicenter of the HIV epidemic, there is a shortage of research and reflection coming from the sub-region itself. With the support of Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), the AIDS and Human Rights Research Unit, based at the Centre for the Study of AIDS and the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, in 2006 engaged in a research project to give a voice to Southern African perspectives on issues pertaining to HIV, AIDS, law and human rights. Four researchers were selected to address four human rights-related issues of increasing importance in the context of HIV and AIDS in the sub-region.

PULP
Human Rights Protected? Nine Southern African country reports on HIV, AIDS and the law. 2007

As its title indicates, Human rights protected? Nine Southern African country reports on HIV, AIDS and the law charts the extent to which human rights are protected in the legal systems of the Southern African states with very high HIV prevalence rates. These countries are Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Issues that are covered in the publication include access to health care, privacy, non-discrimination, labour rights, women's rights, children's rights, prisoners' rights and the government's oversight function.

Frans Viljoen and Susan Precious (eds)
Righting Stigma: Exploring a rights-based approach to addressing stigma. 2005

The need to "right" stigma based on HIV and AIDS (in the sense of "setting stigma right") is much greater than the need to write about it in general terms. As others have pointed out, much has been written about stigma in the context of HIV and AIDS, but less about ways of addressing or combating stigma in such a context.1 Initial preoccupation to ascertain stigma has made place for efforts to explain and understand it, and eventually to find effective interventions to root out stigma. The contributions in this collection concentrate mainly on the role of the law and of rights, but it should be kept in mind that the law forms part of the political ordering of society, and functions against the background of social realities

UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights
Statement on Human Rights & Universal Access to HIV Prevention, Treatment, Care & Support. June 2008

This statement was issued to highlight the importance of much greater attention to human rights in national, international and global responses to HIV, through political commitment, funding, and implementation of programmes that both integrate human rights principles and that are specifically designed to overcome rights-based obstacles to universal access.

UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights of HIV transmission
Issue Paper for the Session "Criminalization of HIV transmission". February 2007

This issue paper was prepared to facilitate discussion at the seventh meeting (February 2007) of the UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the Reference Group, the UNAIDS Secretariat or the Co-sponsors of UNAIDS.

UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights of HIV transmission
Issue Paper for the Session "Development of a tool to measure stigma and discrimination experienced by people living with HIV", February 2007

UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights of HIV transmission
Issue Paper for the Session "Rights-Based Responses to HIV: Human Rights Indicators". August 2005

This issue paper was prepared to facilitate discussion at the fifth meeting (August 2005) of the UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the Reference Group, the UNAIDS Secretariat or the Co-sponsors of UNAIDS.

International Task Team on HIV-related Travel Restrictions

Since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, governments and the private sector have implemented travel restrictions on people living with HIV. These restrictions raise important issues about the fundamental rights of non-discrimination and freedom of movement of people living with HIV in today's highly mobile world.

UNAIDS has set up an international task team to heighten attention to the issue of HIV-related travel restrictions (both short-term and long-term) on international and national agendas and move towards their elimination.

The task team's first meeting was held in February 2008 in Geneva. The Task Team will conclude its work by the end of June 2008 and will make its recommendations and outputs available at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico on 3-8 August 2008 and at the Global Forum on Migration and Development in Manila in October 2008, as well as the Global Fund Board and UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board meetings in November and December 2008.

Resources:

UNDP and UNAIDS Secretariat
Consultation on criminalization of HIV transmission (31 October-2 November 2007)

ARASA/OSISA
Report on the ARASA/OSISA Civil Society Consultative Meeting on the Criminalisation of the Wilful Transmission of HIV (11-12 June 2007)

Report on a consultative meeting on the criminalisation of wilful transmission of HIV held by the AIDS and Rights Alliance for South Africa (ARASA) in collaboration with the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) in Johannesburg in June 2007.

Law on the protection of People Living with HIV against discrimination and stigmatisation. Mozambique, December 2008.

A national legislation on HIV drafted with the support of the UN Joint Teams on AIDS in Mozambique. The law was endorsed by the National Assembly on 11 December 2008.

Websites and other useful resources

http://www.chr.up.ac.za/undp/
A website on supporting the response to the HIV epidemic in Eastern and Southern Africa through the international human rights framework. This website is designed to offer easy access to a series of advocacy tools that can be used by parliamentarians, government officials, members of the judiciary, lawyers, civil society organisations, people living with HIV and all interested institutions and individuals to promote and implement a human rights approach to the response to HIV.

List of Human and Legal Rights Institutions - Eastern and Southern Africa

Status of Legislation in relation to HIV in eastern and Southern Africa. 2009

Criminalisation - Map of Africa