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<DIV><B>From:</B> <A title=noreply@hrea.org
href="mailto:noreply@hrea.org">HREA</A> <IMG height=1
src="http://www.hrea.org/phplist/ut.php?u=6e3ee9476884355c4aea5b8e8a6bfa35&m=2587"
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<P>AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Public Statement <BR>18 August 2006 <BR><BR>As the XVI
International AIDS Conference in Toronto comes to an end, Amnesty International
issues an urgent call to governments and to the international community to place
human rights at the centre of responses to HIV/AIDS. <BR><BR>Twenty-five years
into the epidemic the need for human rights based approaches to HIV/AIDS cannot
go unheeded any longer. Debates at the conference – whose theme was “Time to
deliver” – highlighted the extent to which human rights approaches are
indivisible from successful public health policy. Amnesty International and
other human rights advocates drew attention to a number of areas where
government failure to honour their human rights commitments is undermining
effective responses to the pandemic. These include: <BR><BR>HIV Testing. The
pressure to scale up testing risks bypassing long established principles of
informed consent, counselling and confidentiality. Although many service
providers support voluntary counselling and testing, a number of influential
policy makers and health professionals, including government representatives and
clinicians, promote approaches which risk depriving individuals of the right to
make their own informed choice. HIV testing needs to be expanded to achieve
universal access to treatment, care and support for all persons and to
contribute to more effective prevention strategies. Scaling up of HIV testing
cannot mean that people’s rights to confidentiality, counselling and informed
consent are dismissed. Choices on testing must remain with the individual.
<BR><BR>Women’s rights. The lack of women’s social, sexual and political
empowerment and their lack of access to economic resources increases women’s
vulnerability to HIV. Gender-based violence, whether in the family, in the
community, in armed conflict or at the hands of the state, is a closely related
pandemic that increases women’s risk to HIV infection. To address HIV/AIDS
effectively women’s rights need to be respected, protected and fulfilled, so as
to enable them to protect themselves from the risk of HIV infection and to
strengthen their capacity to decide freely on matters relating to their
sexuality free from coercion, discrimination and violence. <BR><BR>Health
infrastructure. In many countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, many
health workers are dying from AIDS or leaving their countries to seek better
opportunities abroad. The scaling up of testing and treatment will require
increased training of, and commitment by, health workers. Governments must
implement strategies to ensure the right to health of their populations by
maintaining a competent and adequately staffed health sector. <BR><BR>Social
marginalization. Sex workers, injecting drug users, prisoners and men who have
sex with men continue to face exclusion, discrimination and criminalisation, and
lack of access to the conditions that allow people to protect themselves from
HIV infection. More needs to be done to ensure that all people have full access
to the preventive tools and treatment that are currently available. Orphaned
children need government commitment to guarantee their education, security and
access to health services. <BR><BR>As more than 30,000 delegates return home
from Toronto to translate the knowledge gained into action, the need for human
rights based approaches to inform public health policy is more manifest than
ever. Only by respecting human rights can we ensure success in the equitable
scaling–up to universal access to treatment, care and
prevention.</P></BODY></HTML>