Human rights are fundamental to addressing the HIV and AIDS epidemic. On the one hand human rights violations fuel the epidemic by increasing people’s vulnerability to infection. On the other, human rights violations often follow infection and people living with HIV and AIDS can be subjected to various forms of discrimination and ill-treatment, including harassment, arbitrary arrest and torture.

Discriminatory policies and practices can also result in people being denied access to the information, support and services necessary to make informed decisions and to reduce their vulnerability and risk of infection.

Everywhere in the world, HIV-positive people are still subject to serious forms of stigma and discrimination. They risk losing their jobs, being ostracised from their communities and being denied equal access to goods and services necessary to realise their human rights, and even the protection of the law. The vast majority of people living with HIV have inadequate access to care and treatment.

All people, including people living with HIV, have a right to the highest attainable standard of health. Amnesty International believes that respecting, protecting and fulfilling the full range of human rights of all individuals is indispensable to reducing the rates of HIV infection, expanding access to care and treatment and mitigating the impact of the epidemic, including acts of discrimination and violence.

Amnesty International will support prevention efforts by:

• working for the dissemination of information and human rights standards relevant to the prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS;
• campaigning for the protection of HIV and AIDS activists and educators who are under threat by governments or individuals because of their work;
• campaigning against violence against women, drawing attention to the gender-specific impact such violence has on spreading HIV;
• campaigning for the rights of uprooted people, including those who have been trafficked, who face particular risks of violence and HIV infection.

Amnesty International will support the human rights of people living with HIV and AIDS by:

• campaigning to safeguard the physical integrity and security of people living with HIV and AIDS;
• working for access to health care and education for prisoners living with HIV and AIDS;
• working for the protection of people who are at risk of acquiring HIV because of discrimination or as a result of violence including sexual violence;
• campaigning on the right to health, including available, accessible, acceptable and quality health services for people living with HIV.

Take action!
Does your country measure up? Click here to access Amnesty International’s 10 point action on HIV, AIDS and human rights, which calls on governments to:

1. Fulfil the international commitment to the right to health;
2. Remove funding conditions that inhibit the prevention of HIV and AIDS;
3. Ensure equal access to treatment;
4. Ensure access to information;
5. Guarantee sexual and reproductive rights;
6. Safeguard women's rights and stop violence against women;
7. Ensure participation of people living with HIV and AIDS;
8. Share equally the benefits of scientific progress;
9. Affirm the right to privacy and confidentiality;
10. Ensure monitoring and evaluation for human rights and evidence-based solutions.

If your government is not meeting these responsibilities, please write to them urging that they fulfil their national and international obligations to ensure access to the full range of human rights for people living with HIV and AIDS.

What others are saying:
Global Network of people Living with HIV/AIDS
Human Rights Watch
International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS
International Planned Parenthood Federation
Open Society Institute
UNAIDS
UNDP
World Health Organisation

Read more:
South Africa: 'I am at the lowest end of all'. Rural women living with HIV face human rights abuses in South Africa (Report, 18 March 2008)
South Africa: Survivors still at risk (Information sheet, 10 November 2008)
South Africa: Nowhere to shelter (Information sheet, 10 November 2008)
South Africa: No transport, no treatment (Information sheet, 10 November 2008)
'I am not ashamed!': HIV/AIDS and human rights in the Dominican Republic and Guyana (Report, 31 May 2006)
Action on HIV/AIDS and human rights (Information sheet, 11 May 2006)
Women, HIV/AIDS and human rights (Information sheet, 24 November 2006)

This work is part of Amnesty International's Demand Dignity campaign, which aims to end the human rights violations that drive and deepen global poverty. The campaign will mobilize people all over the world to demand that governments, corporations and others who have power listen to the voices of those living in poverty and recognise and protect their rights. For more information visit the Demand Dignity section.