Inter Press Service - April 11, 2001
Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, Apr 11 (IPS) - Progress on human rights issues related to HIV/AIDS has been disappointing in the 20 years since the epidemic began, denounced the United Nations Wednesday.
The director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Peter Piot, stated before the UN Commission on Human Rights that there continues to be widespread human rights abuse against people living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or the subsequent acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
"Currently, over 60 countries worldwide restrict freedom of movement purely on the basis of HIV status and require mandatory testing of HIV as an entry pre-condition," Piot said.
He also stressed that criminal laws in some countries are inconsistent with international human rights commitments and often target groups of people that are most vulnerable to HIV.
"For example, recently in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Uganda, presidential statements have denounced homosexuals as the source of HIV/AIDS infection," the UN official said.
Legislation in those countries tolerates the continued persecution of homosexuals, he added.
The AIDS epidemic continues to grow. In Sub-Saharan Africa, more people died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2000 than ever before, and the number of new cases reported last year reached 3.8 million. There are more than 25 million people living with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan African countries.
In Eastern Europe the disease underwent explosive growth, particularly within the Russian Federation, where increased intravenous drug use - and the sharing of infected syringes - has contributed to HIV propagation.
The trajectory of the epidemic has been "uneven but significant" in the two most populous countries in the world: China and India.
AIDS is entrenched in the Caribbean, and Central American infection rates are on the rise, while there has been no reduction recorded in wealthier nations or in Latin America, according to Piot.
In contrast, the UNAIDS director mentioned that there has been some progress on rights in the context of HIV/AIDS. For example, there is greater protection of privacy and confidentiality for individuals diagnosed with the disease. South Africa abandoned plans that would have required doctors to report all AIDS patients to the government. There were "concerns about the policy leading to the ostracism of people living with AIDS," Piot said.
There have been important advances in enforcing HIV/AIDS- related human rights at the national level in several countries, he said. Ghana's national human rights commission has been especially active in this area.
In Nigeria, Namibia, South Africa and India, cases involving people with HIV/AIDS are being considered by the courts - "on issues related to discrimination, the right to employment, the right to marry, and the right to due process of law," affirmed Piot.
Also along these lines, the UK-based humanitarian organisation Oxfam International has appealed to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, denouncing the 39 pharmaceutical corporations that have launched a court action against the South African government.
The drug companies, according to Oxfam, are blocking South Africa's attempts to provide low-cost medications to its people, thus "preventing the government from fulfilling its international human rights obligations."
Upward of 4.7 million South Africans, or one in nine, are living with HIV/AIDS, and the vast majority cannot afford the medicines for treating the disease. "Oxfam believes that 39 of the world's biggest drug companies are contributing to a gross breach of human rights in South Africa and has called on the United Nations to investigate," Piot reported.
The pharmaceutical corporations filed the lawsuit against the South African government in the nation's own courts to prevent it from implementing a 1997 law that gives Pretoria the right to obtain cheap drugs for the population. The legal proceedings recommence Apr 18. (END/IPS/tra-so/pc/ld/01)
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