discrimination against HIV-infected people

The United Nations General Assembly, in its resolutions 45/187 of 21 December 1990 and 46/203 of 20 December 1991, emphasized the need to counter discrimination and to respect human rights and recognized that discriminatory measures drove HIV/AIDS underground, making it more difficult to combat, rather than stopping its spread. The Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities on discrimination against HIV-infected people and people living with AIDS presented a series of reports to the Sub-Commission between 1990 and 1993.61 The Special Rapporteur’s reports highlighted the need for education programmes to create a genuine climate of respect for human rights in order to eradicate discriminatory practices which are contrary to international law. The right to health can only be implemented by advising people of the means of prevention and the Special Rapporteur made specific reference to the vulnerable situation of women and children in the spread of HIV. Since 1989, the Sub-Commission, at its annual sessions, has adopted resolutions on discrimination against people living with HIV The United Nations Commission on Human Rights, at its annual sessions since 1990, has also adopted numerous resolutions on human rights and HIV which, inter alia, confirm that discrimination on the basis of HIV/AIDS status, actual or presumed, is prohibited by existing international human rights standards and clarify that the term “or other status” used in the non-discrimination clauses of such texts “should be interpreted to include health status, such as HIV/AIDS”।
There have also been prestigious academic international studies of HIV and human rights: these include the work of the late Paul Sieghart for the British Medical Association Foundation for AIDS;64 the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health;65 the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies; the National Advisory Committee on AIDS in Canada;66 the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO);67 the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law;68 by the Danish Centre on Human Rights 69and by the Georgetown/Johns Hopkins University Program in Law and Public हेअलथ
Numerous charters and declarations which specifically or generally recognize the human rights of people living with HIV have been adopted at national and international conferences and meetings, including the following: London Declaration on AIDS Prevention, World Summit of Ministers of Health, 28 January 1988; Paris Declaration on Women, Children and AIDS, 30 March 1989; Recommendation on the Ethical Issues of HIV Infection in the Health Care and Social Settings, Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, October 1989 (Rec. 89/14); Council of Europe, Committee of Ministers, Recommendation R(87) 25 to member States concerning a common European public health policy to fight AIDS, Strasbourg, 1987; European Union, European Parliament and Council Decisions on “Europe Against AIDS” programme (including dec. 91/317/EEC and dec. 1279/95/EC); Declaration of Basic Rights of Persons with HIV/AIDS, Organizing Committee of the Latin American Network of Community-Based Non-Governmental Organizations Fighting AIDS, November 1989; Declaration of the Rights of the People with HIV and AIDS, United Kingdom, 1991; Australian Declaration of the Rights of People with HIV/AIDS, National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS, 1991; Prague Statement, Pan-European Consultation on HIV/AIDS in the Context of Public Health and Human Rights, November 1991;