Human Rights

Human Rights

Amon JJ, Kasambala T. Structural barriers and human rights related to HIV prevention and treatment in Zimbabwe. Glob Public Health. 2009 Mar 26:1-17. [Epub ahead of print]

There has long been recognition that individual risk factors can only partially explain vulnerability to HIV infection, and that a broader range of socioeconomic, cultural and political factors must be taken into account. More recently this understanding has been applied to addressing obstacles to accessing HIV treatment. Yet, while structural interventions aimed at contextual factors related to HIV prevention and treatment have been shown to be effective, they have not been widely implemented. Using the situation of Zimbabwe as an example, Amon and Kasambala present an illustration of how contextual barriers can be understood in human rights terms, and how using a human rights analysis can specifically help define ‘structural-rights’ interventions and compel their implementation.

Editors’ note: This article, a must-read for all those interested in effective combination prevention, demonstrates how explicitly recognising human rights provides a mechanism to address structural level barriers to HIV prevention and care, reinforcing government and donor agency accountability to redress societal power differentials. In other words, situating concerns about the socioeconomic, cultural, and political barriers to HIV prevention within a context of human rights provides a framework for action founded on the obligations and responsibilities of states. Drawing on the current HIV and human rights crisis in Zimbabwe, specific examples are provided of concrete structural-rights interventions to address the right to earn a livelihood and own property; the right to freedom of expression, assembly, and information; the right to freedom from gender-based and sexual violence; and the right to the progressive realisation of health.