MEXICO CITY, Aug. 7 /EMWNews/ -- Thousands of AIDS activists

gathered today for the first-ever international rally for human rights and

HIV/AIDS, a key event of the XVII International AIDS Conference. The

activists called on governments to ensure greater human rights protections

for people living with HIV and those most affected by the epidemic,

including women, sex workers, prisoners, people who use drugs, and men who

have sex with men.



    "We need laws and policies that enable and encourage people to access

prevention and treatment services, not policies that criminalize people,

drive them underground, or block HIV-positive people from entering the

country," said Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS. "We need more

concrete programs to empower marginalized people to claim their rights.

Only then will we overcome the forces of inequality and injustice that

drive this epidemic."



    At the rally, a coalition of human rights and HIV/AIDS organizations

presented Piot and other high-level officials with a declaration that had

received resounding support from over 600 organizations in 105 countries.

The declaration, "Human Rights and HIV/AIDS: Now More Than Ever,"

represented the most significant outcry for HIV-related human rights

protections ever at an International AIDS Conference. Groups representing

human rights, HIV, development, public health, gender, and other issues

showed unprecedented solidarity in endorsing the human rights declaration.



    "This rally should mark a turning point in the global response to HIV,"

said Jonathan Cohen, director of the Law and Health Initiative at the Open

Society Institute's Public Health Program. "The demand that human rights

occupy the center of the HIV response has united activists from all sectors

and corners of the world."



    The declaration charges that universal access to HIV prevention,

treatment, and care programs will never be achieved without a full range of

human rights protections for groups most affected by HIV. Groups such as

women and girls, injecting drug users, sex workers, men who have sex with

men, and people in prison are the most in need of comprehensive HIV

prevention and treatment programs, yet they continue to face discrimination

and abuse and are often denied access to lifesaving programs. As a result,

HIV continues to spread unchecked in communities worldwide.



    "Stigma and discrimination are more devastating than AIDS, and its cost

is much higher because it strains social relations and affects the

enjoyment of all human rights," said Emilio Alvarez Icaza, President of the

Human Rights Commission of the Mexican Federal District.



    According to the UNAIDS 2008 report released last week, people who are

most at risk for HIV have better access to HIV prevention services in

countries that have laws that protect them against discrimination. Yet,

one-third of countries have no law or regulation to protect people living

with HIV from discrimination, and countries that do have

anti-discrimination laws largely fail to enforce them. At the same time,

the United Nations estimates that 63 percent of countries still have laws

and policies that impede effective HIV services. These include laws against

same-sex sexual behavior, sex work, and possession of sterile syringes.



    "Human rights should be at the core of everything we do," said Michel

Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,

Tuberculosis and Malaria. "The fight against AIDS and the other major

diseases in the developing world is a fight for health and human dignity."



    The lack of legal protections for African women, who comprise the

majority of infections on the continent worst-affected by HIV, best

illustrates the need to combine public health with human rights approaches.

Under customary laws throughout Africa, women are denied equal access to

divorce, property, and inheritance. In many countries, governments do not

aggressively prosecute domestic violence or even recognize the crime of

marital rape. This leaves women vulnerable to HIV infection from their

spouses and intimate partners. Preventing HIV in these situations is as

much a legal challenge as a public health one, experts say.



    The rally built on commitments made by governments at a high-level

meeting on AIDS held at the United Nations in June. At the meeting,

representatives from UN member states and civil society organizations

highlighted the need for more effective programming directed to populations

that are highly vulnerable to the disease and most in need of human rights

protection.



    Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for

Human Rights and now Executive Director of the Ethical Globalization

Initiative, headlined the event. Robinson attributed the slow progress

against the HIV epidemic to the lack of urgency given to human rights

concerns.



    "The question we have to ask is, 'Why have we not made more progress if

we know what steps are needed to roll back the tide?' The answer lies in

the lack of demonstrated commitment to secure human rights protection for

people living with, affected by, or vulnerable to HIV and AIDS," said

Robinson. "Most countries have yet to implement prevention programs for

populations most at risk."



    In addition to Piot, Robinson, Kazatchkine, Cohen, and Alvarez Icaza,

speakers at today's rally included Anand Grover, newly appointed UN Special

Rapporteur on the Right to Health and Director of the Lawyers Collective

HIV/AIDS Unit in India; Jeffrey O'Malley, Director of UNDP's HIV/AIDS Group

and founder and former Executive Director of the International HIV/AIDS

Alliance; Nonkosi Khomalo, chairperson of the South African Treatment

Action Campaign (TAC); Carmen Tarradas, representative of the International

Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW); Jose Gerardo Cabrera

Resendiz, Executive Director of the Mexican Network of People Living with

HIV/AIDS; and Craig McClure, Executive Director of the International AIDS

Society.



    The Now More Than Ever declaration is available online in several

languages at: http://www.soros.org/endorsehumanrights.