Site Search
Displaying results 371 - 380 of 391
Resource | Publications,
In the summer of 2009, the author visited a humble orphanage for children with HIV/AIDS in Vietnam. Here, like many parts in the world, the very existence of marginalized people with stigmatized illness is hidden away. Relegated to the shadows of society, these children lacked something more fundamental than housing, shelter, nutrition and medications. They lacked families to love and care for them unconditionally. One might think it self-evident that a visit to an orphanage for children with HIV would be profound, but the profundity wasn't where he expected to find it. It was in how the children had created their own family, loving each other like brothers and sisters, and the way the priest who operated the shelters was more than a Father, he was a dad to dozens of children. This is an account of love as harm reduction in the Mai Tam orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City.
Resource | Publications,
Between October- November 2008, a small rapid assessment of male adolescent sexual exploitation and abuse, along with HIV risk and vulnerability among males who have sex with males, was conducted in Kabul, Kandahar and Maz-e-Sharif in Afghanistan. Preceding this, a scoping mission, a literature review, and a training workshop for the study teams were conducted.
The findings clearly demonstrate that, as in many other societies, sexual exploitation and abuse of highly vulnerable adolescent males, as well as consensual male-to-male sex exists in Afghanistan at significant enough levels to require an immediate response to the requirements of social justice, health and well-being of these males, and to ensure that the country does not develop a range of concentrated HIV epidemics among males who have sex with males, and highly vulnerable adolescent males over the next few years, adding already to the economic burden that already exists.
Resource | Laws and Policies,
The core of HIV/AIDS policy was the detection of hidden HIV cases through compulsory testing. In addition, the surveillance of HIV positive individuals was enforced as a follow-through measure. Thus, traditional public health measures were fully utilized in order to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.
As of today, medical considerations dominate the South Korean’s government HIV/AIDS policy. There is no sincere regard to issues relating to sexuality and risk taking in policy making.
Resource | Guidelines,
Now more than ever, greater attention to human rights and legal issues in the context of HIV/AIDS is needed. Universal access to prevention, treatment, care, and support will never be achieved unless we take concrete steps to put human rights at the center of the fight against HIV/AIDS.
This guide has been prepared by the Law and Health Initiative of the Open Society Institute’s Public Health Program to highlight the many legal and human rights-themed sessions, presentations, and other events at the XVII International AIDS Conference and its satellite events in Mexico City, Mexico.
Resource | Publications,
India is one of the largest and most populated countries in the world, with over one billion inhabitants. Of this number, it's estimated that around 2.5 million people are currently living with HIV. HIV emerged later in India than it did in many other countries, but this has not limited its impact. Infection rates soared throughout the 1990s, and have increased further in recent years. The crisis continues to deepen, as it becomes clearer that the epidemic is affecting all sectors of Indian society, not just the groups – such as sex workers and truck drivers – that it was originally associated with.
Resource | Publications,
Despite the pervasiveness of HIV-related stigma and discrimination in national HIV epidemics and their harmful impact in terms of public health and human rights, they remain seriously neglected issues in most national responses to HIV.
National AIDS programmes – together with key partners – can take concrete steps to address these
critical obstacles and help pave the way towards universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support. The UN system, funding mechanisms and bilateral partners can support countries – through advocacy, strategic planning, technical assistance, resource mobilisation and other means – to reduce stigma and discrimination related to HIV. These efforts will not only help countries reach key targets for universal access and Millennium Development Goal 6, they will also protect and promote human rights, foster respect for people living with HIV and other affected groups, and reduce the transmission of HIV.
Resource | Tools,
National AIDS programmes have become increasingly complex over the past ten years and the role of the programme manager has expanded to accommodate this complexity. The complexity of this role varies from country to country, and is somewhat easier in countries with larger AIDS programmes, in which roles are distributed across a multidisciplinary team.
Resource | Publications,
Although there have been many notable successes in both the prevention and treatment of HIV, stigma and discrimination have been intractable problems associated with the AIDS epidemic throughout the world. Stigma certainly has well-established individual consequences: it has been shown to delay HIV testing, restrict utilization of preventative programs, and hinder the adoption of preventative behaviours like condom use and HIV status disclosure (Brooks et al., 2005). Stigma may also have consequences for individual economic well-being as well as broader socioeconomic development (beyond the impact of HIV disease alone). In Asia, where the epidemic arrived relatively late, HIV is spreading with rapid speed. In 2005, the number of AIDS cases in Asia topped 8 million; this is compared to approximately 3 million people just 10 years prior (UNAIDS, 2006). Determinants and consequences of stigma and discrimination on socioeconomic development in Asia have yet to be empirically assessed.
In this context, this review is aimed at generating informed discussion among key stakeholders including academia, policy makers, governments, donors and people living with HIV on the phenomenon of stigma and discrimination, with a particular focus on its human development context and impact. The paper also seeks to set a research agenda to foster compelling and disaggregated enquiries into stigma and discrimination.
Resource | Guidelines,
Promoting universal respect for human rights has been one of the fundamental goals of the United Nations since its creation, and the development of a comprehensive international human rights normative and standard-setting system within the United Nations was one of the great achievements of the 20th century.
The United Nations Development Fund for Women has worked for gender equality and women's empowerment for over 30 years, and since the 1990s the organization has placed a particular emphasis on supporting implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). This guide consolidates insights and experiences gained by UNIFEM to date, to assist staff in further deepening the HRBA within programming. It’s a contribution we share with partners in our common effort to advance women’s human rights.
Resource | Laws and Policies,
The author was commissioned by UNICEF – East Asia Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO) to conduct this Legal and Policy Review of the existing Philippine laws and policies surrounding HIV Testing and Counseling. The review is an additional input to the discussions on HIV testing approaches, and to gain a glimpse of the legal and policy environment protecting the three C’s (Consent, Counseling, and Confidentiality) in currently implemented methods in the countries covered.