Eastern Europe and Central Asia: report identifies human rights gaps

Criminalization and stigmatization of the high-risk behaviours that promote the spread of HIV are fuelling the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and placing millions of people at risk. This is one of the findings of a report from the United Nations Development Programme released in February 2004. The report, which is the first comprehensive profile of the epidemic in the 28 countries of the region, includes a significant focus on human rights issues.     

United Nations Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS

The United Nations General Assembly Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS calls for a fundamental shift in the response to HIV/AIDS.     

The UNGASS Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS: one year later

This article is one of a series commissioned to mark the tenth anniversary of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. It offers a critical assessment of the impact of the UNGASS Declaration of Commitment on national HIV/AIDS strategies and programs in relation to human rights one year after its adoption. The article reviews the process leading up to the Declaration and describes the limitations of the Declaration's explicit and implicit recognition of human rights. It summarizes information provided by countries one year later to the Secretary-General and to UNAIDS on their progress in meeting the goals and targets of the Declaration, particularly with regard to human rights. It comments on what we can learn from this about countries' recognition of the centrality of promoting and protecting human rights. Finally, it suggests ways to monitor more effectively and comprehensively the implementation of a human rights-based response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.     

HIV/AIDS in prisons: recent developments

In a report released on 20 November 2002, entitled Action on HIV/AIDS in Prisons: Too Little, Too Late--A Report Card, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network concluded that despite repeated studies and nearly ten years of recommendations for urgent and pragmatic action, the response of Canadian governments to HIV/AIDS, HCV, and injection drug use in prisons remains inadequate. Only a few weeks later, the House of Commons Special Committee on Non-Medical Use of Drugs released its report, which contained a number of recommendations to the Correctional Service of Canada. Although the Committee avoided talking about needle exchange programs in prisons, it did recommend them! Meanwhile, in Ireland, not even condoms or bleach are provided.     

Russia: new criminal process code promises a more tolerant incarceration policy

The population of Russian prisons is one of the largest in the world: as of 1 April 2002, there were 1,220,368 people living in prisons in the country. Some data suggest that 15 to 20 percent of all people living with HIV/AIDS in Russia are in prisons and detention facilities.     

UNGASS review: reports show little progress on human rights

Reports tabled at the second annual United Nations General Assembly debate on the implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS suggest that not a lot of progress has been achieved and that many countries will not meet the commitments listed in the Declaration for the year 2003. The one-day session was overshadowed by the fight against terrorism. NGO participation was minimal.     

Warsaw Declaration on HIV/AIDS and injection drug use adopted

Explosive epidemics of HIV among injection drug users are occurring in both developing and developed countries. Globally, it is estimated that 10 percent of HIV infections are attributable to injection drug use, but this proportion is increasing, and is much higher in many countries. Effective interventions exist to prevent the spread of HIV among injection drug users, but in most countries they are being adopted too slowly, or not at all. On 14 November 2003, the Warsaw Declaration: A Framework for Effective Action on HIV/ADS and Injection Drug Use, was adopted at the 2nd International Policy Dialogue on HIV/AIDS. Its purpose is to provide a framework for--finally--"mounting an effective response that will slow and eventually stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic among injecting drug users worldwide."     

The UNGASS Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS: a review of legislation in six Southern African countries

This article reviews legislation of six Southern African countries to determine what progress has been made after the UNGASS Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, particularly with regard to paragraph 58 on human rights and paragraph 69 on rights in the workplace. The article notes the complexities introduced by the coexistence of customary laws and practices and codified law. It describes certain features of specific codified and customized laws. It concludes that, with the possible exception of South Africa, the countries under review have not responded to the challenges the HIV/AIDS epidemic have confronted their legal systems with. They have resorted in the first instance to criminal law, and have allowed discriminatory customary laws and practices, which propel the epidemic, to continue to operate.     

亚洲建立区域人权机制的路径与选择

亚洲区域人权机制建设是当代国际人权法中最受关注的主题之一。亚洲建立区域人权机制是施行《世界人权宣言》和维护本区域人权的有效途径,亚洲现有人权机制具有局限性,应在亚洲未来人权机制建设模式选择的基础上,结合欧洲、非洲和美洲区域人权机制的经验和缺陷,创建和完善亚洲区域人权机制的路径和方法。     

HIV-infected prisoners: what mental health services are constitutionally mandated?

State and federal correctional facilities currently have approximately 23,000 inmates who are infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). These inmates suffer from the same mental health disorders as uninfected inmates but are additionally subject to mental health problems uniquely related to their HIV infection. Many prison systems are struggling to provide minimal mental health care to uninfected inmates. How will prisoners address the additional mental health needs of the staggering number of inmates being diagnosed with AIDS and HIV? This article describes the type of mental health services that are constitutionally mandated and discusses whether and how prisons will have to respond to the distinct mental health issues related to HIV infection.     

The Philippines: HIV/AIDS, condoms, and human rights

Influential leaders are increasingly attacking condoms through HIV-prevention programs that focus on sexual abstinence and marital fidelity. In May 2004 Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report that examines the impact of these policies in the Philippines, the largest Roman Catholic country in Asia and a major recipient of US HIV/AIDS funding.     

WTO ministerial conference adopts declaration on TRIPS and public health

In November 2001, the 4th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization adopted a Ministerial Declaration on public health and the WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the "TRIPS Agreement"). The declaration represents a modest advance in addressing concerns that strict patent laws, and threats of trade sanctions, will be a barrier to most of the world's people with HIV/AIDS accessing affordable medicines. The full significance of the declaration remains to be seen, as it depends on what political impact it has at the WTO and on its member countries, and what legal impact it will have in the interpretation of the TRIPS Agreement.     

Inmate sues the Correctional Service of Canada

This article summarizes a lawsuit commenced recently in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice by an HIV-positive inmate in the federal penitentiary system against the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC). This action is an important part of the ongoing struggle to hold government and public officials accountable for failing to address the HIV/AIDS crisis in prisons. The suit contends that CSC must be held liable for the seroconversion of an inmate while in CSC's care and custody, and that it must also be held liable for the alleged negligent provision of medical care to HIV-positive inmates.     

Barcelona 2002: law, ethics, and human rights. Global battle cry: health is a right, not a commodity

Health is a fundamental right, not a commodity to be sold at a profit, argues Irene Fernandez in the second Jonathan Mann Memorial Lecture delivered on 8 July 2002 to the XIV International AIDS Conference in Barcelona. Ms Fernandez had to obtain a special permit from the Malaysian government to attend the Conference because she is on trial for having publicly released information about abuse, torture, illness, corruption, and death in Malaysian detention camps for migrants. This article, based on Ms Fernandez' presentation, describes how the policies of the rich world have failed the poor world. According to Ms Fernandez, the policies of globalization and privatization of health care have hindered the ability of developing countries to respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The article decries the hypocrisy of the industrialized nations in increasing subsidies to farmers while demanding that the developing world open its doors to Western goods. It points out that the rich nations have failed to live up their foreign aid commitments. The article concludes that these commitments--and the other promises made in the last few years, such as those in the United Nations' Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS--can only become a reality if they are translated into action.     

Update of aims population data and test with the genogeographer admixture module

Individuals from Slovenia, Greece, Albania, and Eritrea were typed with the Precision ID Ancestry Panel and included among GenoGeographer’s nine reference populations (Sub-Saharan Africa, Horn of Africa, North Africa, Middle East, Europe, South/Central Asia, East Asia, and East and West Greenland). We tested the performance of GenoGeographer with the Admixture Module on AIM profiles of 3548 individuals assumed to belong to one of the reference populations. A total of 3387 (95.5 %) profiles were assigned to one or more of the reference populations, either a single population or an admixture of two or more populations, while 161 (4.5 %) profiles were not assigned to any reference population or admixtures thereof. For 1486 AIM profiles with no reference population of origin in GenoGeographer, the rejection rate was more than 70 % for AIM profiles from North and South America and less than 20 % for those from Central, North, and Northeast Asia.     

Inquest into the death of a prisoner co-infected with HIV and hepatitis C: how many more will there be?

Michael Joseph LeBlanc probably became infected with HIV and Hepatitis C while incarcerated in a federal penitentiary. On 18 November 1999, he died at the Regional Hospital in Kingston Penitentiary of complications relating to hepatitis C. Mr LeBlanc died inhumanely, in extreme physical, psychological and emotional distress. His death raises the issues of transmission and prevention of HIV and hepatitis C, compassionate release, and health care and palliative care in federal prisons. An Inquest under the Coroners Act was held in Kingston, Ontario from 30 January to 1 February 2001. These same issues had been raised previously at the October 1997 coroners inquest into the death of William Bell, a person living with AIDS who died while incarcerated in another federal penitentiary.     

Putting third first: critical legal issues and HIV/AIDS

On 7 July 2000, before the XIII International AIDS Conference, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and the AIDS Law Project, South Africa held a one-day satellite meeting on legal, ethical, and human rights issues in Durban, South Africa. Entitled Putting Third First--Critical Legal Issues and HIV/AIDS, the satellite focused on legal strategies to advance the human rights of those most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and to discrimination: people in the developing world, and people who, although they live in the industrialized world, suffer from poverty and marginalization and are at high risk of contracting HIV. The satellite grew out of the ongoing partnership between the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and the AIDS Law Project, South Africa, and was co-hosted by UNAIDS.     

Ireland: HIV and hepatitis C in prisons

Two studies from the Department of Community Health and General Practice at Trinity College, Dublin, have highlighted the extent of the HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) crisis in Irish prisons. The studies confirm that rates of HIV and HCV are disproportionately high in Irish prisons, and that high risk behaviours are commonplace.     

Access to treatment as a right to life and health

In some countries in Latin America, in the absence of leadership from governments, activists have had to resort to the courts to obtain access to HIV/AIDS treatments for people with HIV/AIDS. In his presentation to the XIII International AIDS Conference (abstract TuOrE458), Edgar Carrasco, of Acción Ciudadana Contra el Sida (ACCSI), discusses the process that was followed in Venezuela. The presentation describes the very limited access people with HIV/AIDS had to antiretroviral therapies and treatments for opportunistic infections under Venezuela's health and social security systems. It provides details of lawsuits that were launched on behalf of several individuals living with HIV/AIDS, and that resulted in the courts ordering the government to provide treatments for these individuals and, eventually, for all people with HIV/AIDS in Venezuela. The presentation concludes that recourse to the courts is a useful tool for activists and that civil actions launched on behalf of people with HIV/AIDS can serve as an example for people with other chronic diseases.