UNAIDS Report Shows That Upholding Human Rights Is Vital For Ending The AIDS Pandemic

BANGKOK/GENEVA, 27 November 2024— Ahead of World AIDS Day (1 December), UNAIDS urges leaders to protect the human rights of everyone living with, and at risk of, HIV. Only then can the world meet the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. A new report, “Take the rights path to end AIDS”, notes that despite huge progress made in the HIV response, human rights violations are leading to the denial or limitation of access to HIV services.

“When there is impunity for gender-based violence, when people can be arrested for who they are, when a visit to health services is dangerous for people because of the community they are from—the result is that people are blocked from HIV services that are essential to save their lives and to end the AIDS pandemic,” said Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “To protect everyone’s health, we need to protect everyone’s rights.”

Globally, every minute a person dies due to AIDS. Almost quarter of the estimated 39.9 million people living with HIV are still not accessing life-saving treatment. And in at least 28 countries, new HIV infections are on the rise. It is imperative that HIV prevention, testing and treatment programmes can be reached without fear by all who need them.

The criminalisation and stigmatisation of marginalised communities continue to block access to life-saving HIV services. In the 2021 Political Declaration on Ending HIV and AIDS, countries committed to ensure that by 2025 less than ten percent of countries have punitive laws and policies and less than ten percent of people living with HIV (PLHIV) and key populations experience stigma and discrimination. (The key populations are communities at higher risk for HIV, including men who have sex with men, people in prisons and other closed settings, people who use drugs, sex workers and transgender people.)

The Asia Pacific situation

In Asia and the Pacific there are 17 AIDS-related deaths every hour and a new HIV infection every two minutes. From 2010 to 2023, new infections increased in Bangladesh (20%), Lao PDR (23%), Papua New Guinea (104%), Afghanistan (175%), Fiji (241%) and the Philippines (543%). Four of the six countries worldwide where infections have surged by more than 100% since 2010 are in this region.

“Instead of punishing marginalised communities, governments need to uphold their human rights and ensure they have the specific information and care they require,” said Eamonn Murphy, Regional Director of UNAIDS Asia Pacific and Eastern Europe Central Asia. “The HIV response is at a crossroads. What governments do now will set the trajectory for whether we end AIDS as a public health threat and achieve a sustainable AIDS response, or whether we fail to achieve this and pay a much higher price in terms of human life and financial costs in the future.”

There are legal barriers to the HIV response across Asia Pacific. Twenty countries criminalize HIV transmission, exposure or non-disclosure while 14 restrict the entry, stay or residence of people living with HIV. All but one country, New Zealand, criminalise some aspect of sex work. Seventeen criminalise same-sex relations and 28 criminalise drug possession.

The report features an essay by Dr. Adeeba Kamarulzaman, President of Monash University in Malaysia, and former President of the International AIDS Society.

“Only by aligning drug policy with human rights principles would it be possible to advance public health,” Dr Adeeba wrote. “Since offering harm reduction services, needle-sharing has stopped being the main channel for HIV transmission in Malaysia and thousands of news infections have been prevented.”

Region moves to increase awareness about how HIV treatment can accelerate prevention

Asia Pacific partners are working to increase public and policymaker knowledge about science proving that people living with HIV who have undetectable viral loads are not able to transmit the virus through sex. The principle is known as U=U or undetectable equals untransmittable. When people take their HIV treatment as prescribed, they can lower the virus in their blood to a level that cannot be detected. Last year the World Health Organisation confirmed that people with an undetectable HIV viral load have “zero risk” of infecting a sexual partner.

“It’s time we leveraged the full power of U=U to not only save lives, but change attitudes to people living with HIV,” said Harry Prabowo, Program Manager of the Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV (APN+). “Public health is best served with laws, policies and practices that support people to be diagnosed early, immediately start treatment and achieve viral suppression.”

SEA against Stigma, a network of journalists and influencers from Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam are producing news stories and social media content to raise awareness about this innovation. This is part of a stigma and discrimination-reduction initiative led by UNAIDS and APN+, with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

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