Download Report - UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Centre - United ...

Human Rights and HIV/AIDSIn addition, theGuidelines stressthe duty of theStates to engage inlaw reform andidentify legalobstacles to aneffective HIV/AIDSstrategy ofprevention andcare.Despite South Asian nations beingsignatories to all of these agreements, thesituation on the human rights front isnot satisfactory.4.6.1 International guidelineson HIV/AIDSIn September 1996, the SecondInternational Consultation on HIV/AIDSand Human Rights, convened byUNAIDS and the Office of the UN HighCommissioner for Human Rights, led tothe formulation of the InternationalGuidelines on HIV/AIDS and HumanRights. 71 The Guidelines address multisectoralresponsibilities and accountability,including improving the roles of thegovernment and private sector. Inaddition, they stress the duty of the Statesto engage in law reform and identify legalobstacles to an effective HIV/AIDSstrategy of prevention and care. Theattendant difficulties in the actualimplementation of the Guidelines mustnow be addressed.United Nations Declaration ofCommitmentThe UN Declaration of Commitment isof particular interest since all countries ofthe region, barring Afghanistan, aresignatories to it. The UNGASS was the firstevent of its kind organised by the UnitedNations to address HIV/AIDS andincluded participation by civil society(See Box 4.16).The Declaration addresses issues ofprevention, care, support and treatment;leadership at the national, regional andsub-regional level; reducing vulnerability;alleviating social and economic impact;research and development; respectingimplementation of multi-sectoralstrategies; conflict and disaster-affectedregions; resources; and follow-up at thenational, regional and global levels.However, the need for a human rightsbasedapproach to deal with HIV/AIDSfinds only brief mention in theDeclaration.Thus, it is not surprising that thedocument fails to comprehensivelyaddress the needs of vulnerablepopulations such as men who have sexwith men, sex workers and injecting drugusers. This oversight is of concern to thecountries where the promotion of rightsof vulnerable populations is largelyabsent. Empowerment through humanrights initiatives has been difficult toinitiate due to social stigma and culturalpressures. It is evident that greaterinternational initiatives are required todraw attention to these deficiencies andadvocate for human rights protections aspart of HIV/AIDS strategies.4.6.2 Regional agreementsThe SAARC Convention on Preventingand Combating Trafficking in Women andChildren for Prostitution, held in January2002 marked an important step towardsaddressing the concerns of gender, sexwork and human rights. The SAARCmember states—Bangladesh, Bhutan,India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and SriLanka—were signatories to theConvention, which requires all stateparties to enact legislation that providespunishment for the offence of trafficking,including for keeping, maintaining,managing, knowingly financing, orknowingly renting a place used fortrafficking. A major drawback of theConvention is that it considers traffickingsolely for the purpose of ‘prostitution’thereby limiting the scope of thelegislation. Further, the Conventionadopts a predominantly welfare-basedapproach in dealing with trafficking, asopposed to one based on protectinghuman rights.Regional Human Development Report106 HIV/AIDS and Development in South Asia 2003