dealing specifically with HIV/AIDS

Which UN institutions/bodies are
dealing specifically with HIV/AIDS
related human rights abuses?
The UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human
Rights is mandated to deal with the human rights of all,
including the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS.
Furthermore, UN human rights bodies such as the UN
Commission of Human Rights, the Human Rights
Committee, the Committee on Economic Social and
Cultural Rights, the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women and the Committee on
the Rights of the Child are increasingly dealing with
HIV/AIDS related human rights abuses. Nongovernmental
organizations can contact and provide
input to the work of these bodies in various ways
(cf. “Getting involved in international advocacy” – p.16)
individual cases of alleged
HIV/AIDS-based human rights violations
be taken to an international court ?
There is a regional court functioning at the moment
which hear individual cases from member countries of
the Council of Europe: the European Court of Human
Rights. They can hear cases of alleged breach of the
European Convention on Human Rights।
The European Court of Human Rights
prevented the United Kingdom from
deporting a foreign visitor with AIDS to
his country of origin. The man had been
convicted of drug offences and had
been diagnosed with AIDS while serving
his sentence. He was due to be deported
after release from prison. The European
Court, however, accepted that the man
was terminally ill, and that his removal to
a place where adequate treatment was
not available would shorten his life and
deprive him of his right to life . His death
would not only be accelerated, it would
come about in inhuman and degrading
conditions, in violation of the right not to
be subjected to inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment. The Court
found that Article 3 prohibits in absolute
terms torture or inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment, and that its
guarantees apply irrespective of the
reprehensible nature of the conduct of
the person in question.