HIV/AIDS: Punitive Laws, Stigma Drive Vulnerability To Infection – Ban

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon says the HIV and AIDS epidemic is made worse by punitive laws and stigma which drive vulnerability to infection and block access to life-saving treatment.

In a speech he delivered at the launch of UNAIDS and Lancet Commission Report: “Defeating AIDS -Advancing Global Health’’, in Bridgetown, Barbados on Friday, Ban said homophobia threatened both human rights and public health.

”We cannot tolerate discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation nor on the basis of gender identity.

”We must also defend the human rights of sex workers and of people who inject drugs,” he said.

“This report has four main messages. First, we have the knowledge, tools and know-how to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. The Commission spells out how to achieve this.

”Second, we need to urgently increase and fully fund our AIDS response. Today the world invests 19 billion dollars annually in addressing AIDS,” he said.

To reach the targets, Ban said the world needed to almost double this amount.

He called for a rapid scale-up led by countries with critical support from global and private partners over the next five years so that“ we would be on track to end the epidemic by 2030’’.

”Third, we must apply lessons learned from the AIDS response to other complex challenges. Young people, women, gay activists and campaigners for equality drive progress.

”Activism pushes boundaries to ensure access to affordable medicines, political influence and justice. Fourth, we can leave no one behind. AIDS will only end when we protect the human rights of all,” he said.

The UN chief said the disease thrived on unjust power relations and inequalities.

He said the world would have to battle all forms of societal ills, including stigma, intolerance, discrimination and violence.

”To end this epidemic, we need gender equality. We need to protect sexual and reproductive rights. And we need to give adolescents life-skills, including education about their sexuality.

”AIDS is about more than human health. It is fundamentally an issue of human rights. For the past 15 years, the world has been inspired by the Millennium Development Goals to act together against AIDS.

”Now, we are forging new sustainable development goals,” he said.

Ban said ending the AIDS epidemic in all places and all communities was essential to realising the vision of a life of dignity for all.

The UN chief said that a quarter of a million people in the Caribbean region lived with HIV with the governments struggling to finance their responses. (NAN)