UNIT 5: What Are Your Rights?

Unit Focus

Laws and policies were enacted to grant rights and privledges to those living with HIV/AIDS

Related Wise Bodies Videos

• Who has HIV?

• Progress and Advocacy

• Know Your Status

Objectives

Learners will identify and understand that health is a human rights issue, why it remains an issue, and how to mitigate this issue.

Key Concepts

• Human rights – Rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, or any other status.

• Discrimination – The unjust treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.

• HIV criminalization – Laws that criminalize people based on their HIV status.

Teacher Tip

Summarizing the court cases in a sentence or two when introducing the activity may help your learners wrap their minds around it more easily and stay engaged.

Assessment

Discussion Points

Fighting the spread of HIV is as much of a social justice issue as a medical one, as human rights abuses are one of the drivers of the HIV epidemic and increase its impact. Fortunately, it is now widely recognized that HIV and human rights are inextricably linked. Thanks to international human rights laws and treaties, as well as international obligations such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, all people have rights to health and access to HIV services.

Despite these protections, many people continue to face barriers to lifesaving health services, which often take the form of discriminatory laws and practices connected to a person’s gender identity, health status, sexual orientation and conduct. These laws are based on the idea that fear of punishment will deter what is perceived to be morally unacceptable behavior, but they actually undermine the global HIV response and strengthen the stigma against HIV. For example, HIV criminalization has been shown to deter people from testing for HIV, limiting their access to treatment and care.

In order to continue the fight against HIV and end the epidemic, HIV programs based on human rights need to be implemented globally. Countries that fail to meet the human rights requirements for people living with HIV should be held legally accountable, such as the 68 that criminalized HIV non-disclosure, exposure or transmission as recently as 2018. (Source: thelancet.com/journals/lanhiv/article/PIIS2352-3018(18)30219-4/fulltext)

• Which groups within people living with HIV do you think suffer the most under HIV criminalization? Why?

• What other global issues can you think of that require a human rights approach?

Learners will be assessed on how well they can support their views using existing statutes, regardless of their stance on the issue.