Document 1923
 DOCN  M94A1923
 TI    Human rights abuses related to HIV status--a survey of reports received.
 DT    9412
 AU    Cortinas JI; International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, San;
       Francisco, CA 94103.
 SO    Int Conf AIDS. 1994 Aug 7-12;10(1):420 (abstract no. PD0287). Unique
       Identifier : AIDSLINE ICA10/94370652
 AB    Between 1991 and 1993 IGLHRC received and confirmed 15 reports of
       systematic HIV related human rights violations. These reports included
       accounts of extra-juridical violence, disappearances, forced relocation,
       employment discrimination, denial of freedom of speech, assembly and
       other social and cultural rights, as well as forced testing and
       inappropriate surveillance. Reports reached IGLHRC from Colombia,
       Russia, Hungray, Belgium, Venezuela, Burma, Thailand, Cuba, United
       States, Croatia, Brazil and Mexico. Abuses were perpetuated by
       governmental and nongovernmnetal actors. They contradicted
       internationally accepted public health standards, human rights treaties,
       and often local laws as well. They often included violence or its
       threat. In all cases surveyed, the marginalization of the populations
       targeted predates the AIDS epidemic. Several inadequacies with current
       thinking about how to best to protect and advance the human rights of
       people with HIV were revealed: 1. Violations of a person's human rights
       that are related to HIV status, and in turn increase their risk for HIV
       infection, are often driven by patterns of marginalization that predate
       the epidemic. 2. Anti-discrimination laws do not address deeply located
       cultural, social and political marginalization often at the root of
       human rights violations. 3. Health promotion describing the real routes
       of HIV transmission and effective ways to control it does not go far
       enough to allay fears based on counter rational, ideological beliefs.
       Discussion of HIV and human rights has been hampered by international
       human rights practice that prioritizes civil and political rights. This
       officializing thrust emphasizes legally sustainable, discrete
       complaints, such as employment discrimination and the rights of the
       patient, and misses others, such as the right to cultural participation
       and community controlled education. New multi disciplinary, multi
       pronged, and locally controlled strategies seeking economical, social
       and cultural rights, as well as political and civil rights, need to be
       developed as public health initiatives.
 DE    Civil Rights  Female  Health Promotion  Human  *Human Rights  *HIV
       Infections/PREVENTION & CONTROL/TRANSMISSION  *HIV Seropositivity
       International Cooperation  Male  *Patient Advocacy  Public Health
       *Truth Disclosure  MEETING ABSTRACT

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