04 September 2001

Fact Sheet: UNAIDS Describes HIV/AIDS Discrimination

The Joint United Nations Program on AIDS (UNAIDS) is focusing increased attention on how stigmatization and discrimination can be obstacles to effective treatment and care of people with HIV/AIDS. UNAIDS is leading a discussion of the issue at the ongoing U.N. Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance September 5.

UNAIDS released a fact sheet September 4 on how stigmatization and discrimination can worsen the suffering of HIV/AIDS patients.

Following is the text of the UNAIDS fact sheet:

Joint United Nations Program on Aids -- UNAIDS

Fact Sheet

An overview of HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination

All over the world, the epidemics of HIV and AIDS are having a profound impact, bringing out the best and the worst in people. They trigger the best when individuals group together in solidarity to combat government, community and individual denial, and to offer support and care to people living with HIV and AIDS. They bring out the worst when individuals are stigmatized and ostracized by their loved ones, their family and their communities, and discriminated against individually as well as institutionally.

The nature of stigma and discrimination

--The "undesirable differences" and "spoiled identities" that HIV/AIDS-related stigma causes do not naturally exist, they are created by individuals and by communities. Stigmatization describes this process of devaluation.

--HIV/AIDS-related stigma builds upon, and reinforces, existing prejudices. It also plays into, and strengthens, existing social inequalities -- especially those of gender, sexuality and race.

--HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination play a key role in producing and reproducing relations of power and control. They cause some groups to be devalued and others to feel that they are superior. Ultimately, stigma creates and is reinforced by social inequality.

Stigma, discrimination and human rights

--Prejudiced and stigmatizing thoughts frequently lead people to do (or not do) something that denies services or entitlements to another person. For example, they may prevent health services being used by a person living with HIV/AIDS, or terminate their employment on the grounds of their HIV status. This is discrimination.

--Discrimination occurs when a distinction is made against a person that results in their being treated unfairly and unjustly on the basis of their belonging, or being perceived to belong, to a particular group.

--Due to stigma and HIV/AIDS-related discrimination, the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS and their families are frequently violated simply because they are known, or presumed, to have HIV/AIDS. This violation of rights hinders the response and increases the negative impact of the epidemic.

--Freedom from discrimination is a fundamental human right founded on principles of natural justice that are universal and perpetual. The basic characteristics of human rights are that they inhere in individuals because they are human, and that they apply to people everywhere.

--The Principle of Non-discrimination is central to human rights thinking and practice. All international human rights instruments and the African Charter (1) prohibit discrimination based race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, fortune, birth or other status.

--Recent UN Commission on Human Rights resolutions (2) have unequivocally stated that "the term 'or other status' in non-discrimination provisions in international human rights texts should be interpreted to cover health status, including HIV/AIDS", and has confirmed that "discrimination on the basis of HIV/AIDS status, actual or presumed, is prohibited by existing human rights standards".

--Discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS, or those thought to be infected, is therefore a clear violation of their human rights.

--The forms of stigma and discrimination faced by people with HIV/AIDS are multiple and complex. Individuals tend to not only be stigmatized and discriminated against because of their HIV status, but also because of what this connotes. Recent UNAIDS-sponsored research in India and Uganda shows that women with HIV/AIDS may be doubly stigmatized -��both as 'women' and as 'people living with HIV/AIDS' when their seropositivity becomes known.(3)

--States have obligations to respect protect and fulfill human rights. In relation to stigma and discrimination, for example, the obligation to respect requires States not to directly or indirectly discriminate in law, policy or practice. The obligation to protect requires States to take measures that prevent third parties from discriminating,(4) and the obligation to fulfill requires States to adopt appropriate legislative, budgetary, judicial, promotional and other measures to ensure that strategies, policies and programmes are developed that address the discrimination, and ensure that compensation is paid to those who suffer discrimination.

Action to address stigma and discrimination

--The human rights framework provides access to existing procedural, institutional and other monitoring mechanisms for enforcing the rights of people living with HIV and AIDS, and for countering and redressing discriminatory action.

--Appropriate reporting and enforcement mechanisms (ranging from legal aid services to hotlines for reporting acts of discrimination and violence) have provided powerful and rapid means of mitigating the worst affects of HIV/AIDS-related stigmatization and discrimination.

--Experience has shown that two complementary kinds of alleviation strategies are necessary to address stigma and discrimination: (i) strategies that prevent stigma or prejudicial thoughts being formed and (ii) strategies that address or redress the situation when stigma persists and is acted upon through discriminatory action, leading to negative consequences or the denial of entitlements or services.

--Ultimately, it is at the community and national levels that HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination are most effectively combated. Communities and community leaders must advocate for inclusiveness and equality irrespective of HIV status.

(1) The right to non-discrimination is enshrined in Article 2 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights; Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Convention on the Rights on the Child; the African Charter.

(2) Commission on Human Rights, Resolutions 1999/49 and 2001/51.

(3) HIV and AIDS-related stigmatization, discrimination and denial: forms, contexts and determinants Research studies from Uganda and India.

(4) For example, adopting of legislation to ensure the equal access to health care and health related services provided by third parties; to control the marketing of medicines and medical equipment and to ensure that medical practitioners and other health professionals meet appropriate standards of education, skill and ethical codes of conduct.

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