Human rights and HIV/AIDS - Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

In the present report, submitted to the Human Rights Council pursuant to its resolution 47/14, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights recommends action necessary to achieve the societal enabler targets adopted by the General Assembly in its Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Ending Inequalities and Getting on Track to End AIDS by 2030: removing punitive legal and policy frameworks; reducing stigma and discrimination; and addressing gender inequalities and gender-based violence. Societal enablers are structural and systemic factors, including legal, cultural, social and economic that are critical to the effectiveness of the AIDS response. Implementing them would remove barriers in access to health services and enable individuals and communities to better protect their health and well-being.

Since 2017, much progress has been made in removing human rights-related barriers to HIV services by significantly increasing funding and programme implementation. The main gaps and challenges remaining in the HIV response are, however, mainly due to a continued failure to uphold human rights, especially the rights of people living with HIV, including women and girls and other groups living in situations of vulnerability, and to fund and implement required interventions at scale, such as human rights literacy, training and support; gender equality and prevention of violence; community-based human rights empowerment and monitoring; law and policy reform; and redress for harm.