How are HIV and AIDS a human rights issue?
Human rights and HIV are inextricably linked. As the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s (IPU) Handbook for Legislators on HIV/AIDS, Law and Human Rights notes:
“A lack of respect for human rights fuels the spread, and exacerbates the impact, of the disease. At the same time, HIV undermines progress in the realization of human rights. This link is apparent in the disproportionate incidence and spread of the disease among key populations at higher risk, and particularly those living in poverty. It is also apparent in the fact that the overwhelming burden of the epidemic today is borne by low- and middle-income countries. AIDS and poverty are now mutually reinforcing negative forces in many of these countries.”
(Source: Health and Human Rights Resource Guide, François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health)