- Author
- Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network
- Title
- Programming HIV/AIDS: A Human Rights Approach
- In
- A tool for international development and community-based organizations responding to HIV/AIDS
- Edition
- Canadian Version
- Imprint
- Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, 2004, 38 pp
- Description
Reproduced with the kind permission of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.
- Abstract
"International legal obligations and sound public health practice require that to reduce the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS, policies and programs must protect and promote human rights. The human rights approach offers a potentially effective, globally integrated framework for addressing the underlying determinants of HIV infection, care and impact over the longer term. However in practice, difficulties arise in the design and delivery of human rights-based HIV/AIDS programs often because: some funders and development organizations are still considering what a human rights approach means for HIV/AIDS programming; · human rights, democracy and governance programs and projects often focus on civil and political rights, including issues such as media freedom and free and fair elections, and rarely include an HIV/AIDS perspective; and · the experience of human rights programming in the context of HIV/AIDS has not been adequately documented. Research for this publication commenced in 2001 when the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) approached the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network for practical guidance in incorporating human rights approaches into development
programming on HIV/AIDS. A survey of other government and agency approaches was undertaken by the author (Reviewing rogramming on HIV/AIDS, human rights and development, 2002), which suggested that a manual which combined international human
rights principles, guidelines, and emerging best practice would be a useful tool for development staff in national government, inter-governmental and non-government organizations and other funders supporting national and international responses to HIV/AIDS."