In the lead up to the 2010 International AIDS Conference in Vienna, the European Parliament has voted on a Motion for a Resolution on a rights-based approach to the EU's response to HIV. Referring to the UNAIDS Outcome Framework 2009-2011, the Resolution strongly supports the Joint Programme's position on human rights issues such as decriminalization of sexual transmission, injecting drug users and on men who have sex with men.
Passed by an overwhelming majority of members on 8 July 2010, the Resolution also asks EU member states to meet their commitments as well as to step up efforts in addressing HIV as a global public health priority with human rights as central to its prevention, treatment, care and support, including in EU development cooperation. The XVIII International AIDS Conference which starts in Vienna on 18 July 2010 will run under the theme of human rights: ‘Rights Here, Right Now.’
Vice-President and High Representative of the European Union, Ms Catherine Ashton, made a strong statement to the Members of the Parliament in support of the Resolution: “I am confident that the Vienna Conference will help us to move forward in enforcing the rights of people to be protected against avoidable HIV infections and in gaining access to the evidence-based prevention and highly efficient treatment that so many honourable Members have referred to this evening.”
She also gave a personal commitment to ensure its effective implementation by the European Commission, saying, “I want to assure you as well that we will maintain and increase our dedication to defending these rights inside Europe, but also as part of our relations with third countries whether they are close to our borders or on other continents.
The Resolution calls on the European Commission and the Council to promote efforts to decriminalise HIV transmission and exposure and to support harm reduction programmes for prisoners and injecting drug users.
Recognizing that addressing women’s needs was an essential measure for curbing the epidemic, the Resolution also calls for expanding access to sexual and reproductive health care programmes.
It also called for member states to promote best policies and practices in the political dialogue at global and country-level regarding rights-based responses to HIV and calls on the Commission and the Council to work with UNAIDS and other partners to improve indicators for measuring progress at global, national and at programmatic level to reduce HIV-related stigma and discrimination, including indicators specific to key populations.
UNAIDS urges the removal of all punitive laws, policies, practices, stigma and discrimination that block effective responses to AIDS including in the areas of sex work, travel restrictions, homophobia and criminalization of HIV transmission.
With an estimated 33.4 million people living with HIV globally and 2.7 million newly infected in 2008, countries continue to rank AIDS high on the list of the most important issues facing the world.
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Approximately 1.6 million children and adults were living with HIV in 2001 in the WHO European Region, and estimations suggest that this number increased to 2.4 million people in 2008 and is still rising. Alarmingly, around half of those people do not know that they are infected. Despite the progress in achieving universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support across the Region over the last decade, the fight against HIV epidemic still faces many challenges.
- No country knows exactly how many infected people it has within its borders, making it difficult for the health system to offer appropriate scale of medical services, including medical treatment and care.
- For HIV combination therapy to work, it is best started at a time when the patient is still relatively healthy. Unfortunately, many Europeans with HIV start treatment too late and already show signs of widespread immune system damage, leading to excess mortality among people infected with HIV/AIDS in western Europe.
- Access to life-saving combination therapy is inadequate in a number of eastern countries; as a result, patients who need the therapy often do not receive it. Lack of access to treatment reduces the incentive to get tested, as does fear of discrimination and stigmatization.
- Tuberculosis (TB) remains widespread in eastern Europe. The risk of developing TB is far greater for people living with HIV if the infection is not treated. For this reason, the incidence of TB will likely continue to rise in eastern Europe.
- More than half of the estimated 2.5 million people living with HIV are also chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV). The people most at risk of HIV/HCV coinfection are injecting drug users (IDU) and men who have sex with men (MSM). Coinfection can lead to life-threatening liver failure. Hepatitis is difficult to treat, and this situation is likely to lead to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths in the years to come.
WHO/Europe works to address these challenges. As one of the 10 co-sponsors of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), WHO/Europe’s activities are carried out within the broader context of the United Nations goal of universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010.
The main outputs include:
- evidence for increased awareness and understanding of the epidemic;
- assistance to countries to develop effective and appropriate health sector policies, regarding HIV/AIDS;
- technical support to countries in implementing large-scale essential HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care services, including universal access to antiretroviral treatment; and
- improved national and regional HIV/AIDS surveillance and information.
http://www.healthofnations.com/countries/map/outcomes/phiv