C. The application of specific human rights in the context of the HIV/AIDS epidemic 
83.Examples of the application of specific human rights to HIV/ AIDS are illustrated below. These rights should not be considered in isolation but as interdependent rights supporting the Guidelines elaborated in this document. In the application of these rights, the significance of national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural and religious backgrounds must be taken into consideration. It remains the duty of States, however, to promote and protect all human rights within their cultural contexts. 
1. Non-discrimination and Equality Before the Law 
83.International human rights law guarantees the right to equal protection before the law and freedom from discrimination on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property,birth or other status. Discrimination on any of these grounds is not only wrong in itself but also creates and sustains conditions leading to societal vulnerability to infection by HIV, including lack of access to an enabling environment that will promote behavioural change and enable people to cope with HIV/AIDS. Groups
suffering from discrimination, which also disables them in the context of
HIV/AIDS, are women, children, those living in poverty, minorities, indigenous people, migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons, people with disabilities, prisoners, sex workers, men having sex with men and injecting drug users. Responses by States to the epidemic should include the implementation of laws and Policies to eliminate systemic discrimination, including where it occurs against these groups.  
83.The Commission on Human Rights has confirmed that "other status" in non-discrimination provisions is to be interpreted to include health status,including HIV/AIDS. This means that States should not discriminate against PLHAs or members of groups perceived to be at risk of infection on the basis of their actual or presumed HIV status. 
83.The Human Rights Committee has confirmed that the right to equal protection of the law prohibits discrimination in law or in practice in any fields regulated and protected by public authorities and that a difference in treatment is not necessarily discriminatory if it is based on reasonable and objective criteria. The prohibition against discrimination thus requires States to review and, if necessary,repeal or amend their laws, policies and practices to proscribe differential treatment, which is, based on arbitrary HIV related criteria. 

2.Human Rights For Women
83.Discrimination against women, de facto and de jure, renders them
disproportionately vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. Women's subordination in the family and in public life is one of the root causes of the. rapidly increasing rate of infection among women. Systematic discrimination based on gender also impairs women's ability to deal with the consequences of their own infection and/or infection in the family, in social, economic and personal terms. 23  83.With regard to prevention of infection, the rights of women and girls to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, to education, to freedom of expression, to freely receive and impart information, should be applied
to include equal access to HIV-related information, education, means of
prevention and health services. However, even when such information and services are available, women and girls are often unable to negotiate safer sex or to avoid HIV-related consequences of the sexual practices of their husbands or partners as a result of social and sexual subordination, economic dependence on a relationship and cultural attitudes. The protection of the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls are, therefore, critical. This includes the rights of women to have control over and to decide freely and responsibly, free of coercion, discrimination and violence, on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health. Measures for the elimination of sexual violence and coercion against women in the family and in public life not only protect women from human rights violations but also from HIV infection that may result from such violations. 83.Violence against women in all its forms during peacetime and in conflict situations increase their vulnerability to HIV infection. Such violence includes,
inter alia, sexual violence, rape (marital and other) and other forms of coerced sex, as well as traditional practices affecting the health of women and children. States have an obligation to protect women from sexual violence in both public and private life. 83.Furthermore, in order to empower women to leave relationships or employment which threaten them with HIV infection and to cope if they or their family members are infected with HIV/AIDS, States should ensure women's rights to,inter alia, legal capacity and equality within the family, in matters such as
divorce, inheritance, child custody, property and employment rights, in particular,equal remuneration of men and women for work of equal value, equal access to responsible positions, measures to reduce conflicts between professional and family responsibilities and protection against sexual harassment at the workplace. Women should also be enabled to enjoy equal access to economic resources, including credit, an adequate standard of living, participation in public and political life and to benefits of scientific and technological progress so as to minimize risk of HIV infection. 83.HIV/AIDS prevention and care for women are often undermined by pervasive misconceptions about HIV transmission and epidemiology. There is a tendency to stigmatize women as "vectors of disease", irrespective of the source of infection. As a consequence, women who are or are perceived to be HIV-positive face violence and discrimination in both public and in private life. Sex workers often face mandatory testing with no support for prevention activities to encourage or require their clients to wear condoms and with little or no access to health-care services. Many HIV/AIDS programmes targeting women are focused on pregnant women but these programmes often emphasize coercive measures directed towards the risk of transmitting HIV to the foetus, such as mandatory pre- and post-natal testing followed by coerced abortion or sterilization. Such programmes seldom empower women to prevent prenatal transmission by pre-natal prevention education and an available choice of health services and overlook the care needs of women. 
83.The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women obliges States parties to address all aspects of gender-based discrimination in law, policy and practice. States are also required to take appropriate measures to modify social and cultural patterns, which are based on ideas of superiority/inferiority and stereotyped roles for men and women. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) which monitors the Convention has underscored the link between women's reproductive
role, their subordinate social position and their increased vulnerability to HIV infection. 

3.Human Rights For Children 
The rights of children are protected by all international human rights
instruments and, in particular, under the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, which establishes an international definition of the child as "every
human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law
applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier" (art. 1). The Convention reaffirms that children are entitled to many of the rights that protect adults (e.g. the rights to life, non-discrimination, integrity of the person, liberty and security, privacy, asylum, expression, association and assembly, education and health), in addition to particular rights for children established by the Convention. 

Many of these rights are relevant to HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support for children, such as freedom from trafficking, prostitution, sexual exploitation and sexual abuse since sexual violence against children, among other things, increases their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. The freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds and the right to education provide children with the right to give and receive all HIV-related information needed to avoid infection and to cope with their status, if infected. The right to special protection and assistance if deprived of his or her family environment, including alternative care and protection in adoption, in particular protects children if they are orphaned by HIV1AIDS The right of disabled children to a full and abolition of traditional practice which are prejudicial to the health of children, such as early marriage,female genital mutilation, denial of equal sustenance and inheritance for girls are also highly relevant in the context of HIV1AIDS. Under the Convention, the right to non-discrimination and privacy for children living with HIV/AIDS and finally the rights of children to e actors in their own development and to express opinions and have them taken into account in making decisions about their lives should empower children to be involved in
the design and implement of HIV-related programmes for children. 

4. Right to Marry and to Found a Family and Protection Of the Family 

96. The right to marry to found a family encompasses the right or "men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion,... to marry an to found a family", to be "entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution" and to protection by society and the State of the family as "the natural and fundamental group unit of society" Therefore, it is clear that the right of people living with HIV/AIDS is infringed by mandatory pre-marital testing and/or the requirement of "AIDS-free certificates" as a precondition for the grant of marriage licences under State laws. Secondly, forced abortions or sterilization of HIV-infection women violates the human right to found a family, as well as the right to liberty and integrity of the person. Women should be provided with accurate information about the risk of prenatal
transmission to 211 support them in making voluntary, informed choices about reproduction. Thirdly, measures to ensure the equal rights of women within the family are necessary to enable women to negotiate safe sex with their husbands/ partners or be able to leave the relationship if they cannot assert their rights (see also “Human rights of women" above). Finally recognition of the family as the fundamental unit of society is undermined by policies which have the effect of denying family unity. In the case of migrants, many States do not allow migrants to be accompanied by family members, and the resulting isolation can increase vulnerability to HIV infection. In the case of refugees, mandatory testing as a precondition of asylum can result in HIV positive family members being denied asylum while the rest of the family is granted asylum. 

5.Right to Privacy 

83.Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides that "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks". The right to privacy encompasses obligations to respect physical privacy, including the obligation to seek informed consent to HIV testing and privacy of information, including the need to respect confidentiality of all
information relating to a person's HIV status.  83.The individual's interest in his/her privacy is particularly compelling in the context of HIV/AIDS, firstly, in view of the invasive character of a mandatory HIV test and, secondly, by reason of the stigma and discrimination attached to the loss of privacy and confidentiality if HIV status is disclosed. The community has an interest in maintaining privacy so that people will feel safe and comfortable in using public health measures, such as HIV/AIDS prevention and care service.The interest in public health does not justify mandatory HIV testing or registration, except in cases of blood/organ/tissue donations where the human product, rather than the person, is tested before use on another person. All information on HIV sero-status obtained during the testing of donated blood or tissue must also be kept strictly confidential.  83.The duty of States to protect the right to privacy, therefore, includes the obligation to guarantee that adequate safeguards are in place to ensure that no testing occurs without informed consent, that confidentiality is protected, particularly in health and social welfare settings, and that information on HIV status is not disclosed to third parties without the consent of the individual. In this context, States must also ensure that HIV-related personal information is protected in the reporting and compilation of pidemiological data and that individuals are protected from arbitrary interference with their privacy in the context of media investigation and reporting.  83.In societies and cultures where traditions place greater emphasis on the community, patients may more readily authorize the sharing of confidential information with their family or community. In such circumstances, disclosure to the family or community may be for the benefit of the person concerned and such shared confidentiality may
not breach the duty to maintain confidentiality. 
83.The Human Rights Committee has found that the right to privacy
under article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights is violated by laws which criminalize private homosexual acts
between consenting adults. The Committee noted that ". . . the
criminalization of homosexual practices cannot be considered a
reasonable means or proportionate measure to achieve the aim of
preventing the spread of HIV/ AIDS ... by driving underground many
of the people at risk of infection ... [it] would appear to run counter
to the implementation of effective education programmes in respect
of the HIV/AIDS prevention. 
83.The Committee also noted that the term "sex" in article 26 of the
Covenant, which prohibits discrimination on various grounds, includes
sexual orientation". In many countries, there exist laws, which render
criminal particular sexual relationships or acts between consenting
adults, such as adultery, fornication, oral sex and sodomy. Such
criminalization not only interferes with the right to privacy but it also
impedes HIV/AIDS education and prevention work. 

6. Right to Enjoy the Benefits of Scientific Progress And its Applications 
 
The right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications is important in the context of HIV/AIDS in view of the rapid and continuing advances regarding testing, treatment therapies and the development of a vaccine. More basic scientific advances which are relevant to HIV/AIDS concern the safety of the blood supply from HIV infection and the use of universal precautions, which prevent the transmission of HIV in various settings, including that of health care. In this connection, however, developing countries experience severe resource constraints, which limit not only the availability of such scientific benefits but also the availability of basic pain prophylaxis and antibiotics for the treatment of HIV-related conditions. Furthermore, disadvantaged and/or marginalized groups within societies may have no or limited access to available HIV-related treatments or to participation in clinical and vaccine development trials. Of deep concern is the need to share equitably among States and among all groups within States basic drugs and treatment, as well as the more expensive and complicated treatment therapies, where possible. 

7. Right to Liberty of Movement 
 
104.The right to liberty of movement encompasses the rights of everyone lawfully within a territory of a State to liberty of movement within that State and the freedom to choose his/her residence, as well as the rights of nationals to enter and leave their own country. Similarly, an alien lawfully within a State can only be expelled by a legal decision with due process protection. 
105.There is no public health rationale for restricting liberty of movement or choice of residence on the grounds of HIV status. According to current international health regulations, the only disease which requires a certificate for international travel is yellow fever. Therefore, any
restrictions on these rights based on suspected or real HIV status alone, including HIV screening of international travellers, are discriminatory and cannot be justified by public health concerns. 
106.Where States prohibit people living with HIV/AIDS from longer-term
residency due to concerns about economic costs, States should not single out HIV/AIDS, as opposed to comparable conditions, for such treatment and should establish that such costs would indeed be incurred in the case of the individual alien seeking residency. In considering entry applications, humanitarian concerns, such as family reunification and the need for asylum, should outweigh economic considerations. 

8. Right to Seek and Enjoy Asylum 

107. Everyone has the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution in other countries. Under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and under customary international law, States cannot, in accordance with the principle of non-refoulement, return a refugee to a country where she or he faces persecution. Thus, States may not return a refugee to persecution on the basis of his or her HIV status. Furthermore, where the treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS can be said to amount to persecution, it can provide a basis for qualifying for refugee status. 
108.The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees issued policy
guidelines in March 1988 which state that refugees and asylum seekers
should not be targeted for special measures regarding HIV infection and
that there is no justification for screening being used to exclude HIV-positive individuals from being granted asylum. 
108.The Human Rights Committee has confirmed that the right to equal
protection of the law prohibits discrimination in law or in practice in any
fields regulated and protected by public authorities. These would in elude travel regulations, entry requirements, immigration and asylum procedures. Therefore, although there is no right of aliens to enter a foreign country or to be granted asylum in any particular country, discrimination on the grounds of HIV status in the context of travel regulations, entry requirements, immigration and asylum procedures would violate the right to equality before the law. 
 
9. Right to Liberty and Security of Person 
108.Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
provides that "Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedures as are established by law". 
108.The right to liberty and security of person should,. therefore, never be arbitrarily interfered with, based merely on HIV status by using measures such as quarantine, detention in special colonies, or isolation. There is no public health justification for such deprivation of liberty. Indeed, it has been shown that public health interests are served by integrating people living with HIV/AIDS within communities and benefiting from their participation in economic and public life. 
108.In exceptional cases involving objective judgements concerning
deliberate and dangerous behaviour, restrictions on liberty may be imposed. Such exceptional cases should be handled under ordinary provisions of public health, or criminal laws, with appropriate due process protection. 
108.Compulsory HIV testing can constitute a deprivation of liberty and a
violation of the right to security of person. This coercive measure is often utilized with regard to groups least able to protect themselves because they are within the ambit of government institutions or the criminal law, e.g. soldiers, prisoners, sex workers, injecting drug users and men who have sex with men. There is no public health justification for such compulsory HIV testing. Respect for the right to physical integrity requires that testing be voluntary and that no testing be carried out without informed consent. 

10. Right to Education 

108.Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states in part that "Everyone has the right to education. . . . Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship . . .". This right includes three broad components, which apply in the context of HIV/AIDS. Firstly, both children and adults have the right to receive HIV-related education, particularly regarding prevention and care. Access to education concerning HIV/AIDS is an essential life-saving component of effective prevention and care programmes. It is the State's obligation to ensure, in every cultural and religious tradition, that appropriate means are found so that effective HIV/AIDS information is included in educational programmes inside and outside schools. The provision of education and information to children should not be considered as promoting early sexual experimentation; rather, as studies indicate, it delays sexual activity. 
108.Secondly, States should ensure that both children and adults living
with HIV/AIDS are not discriminatorily denied access to education, including access to schools, universities, scholarships and international education or subject to restrictions because of their HIV status. There is no public health rationale for such measures since there is no risk of transmitting HIV casually in educational settings. Thirdly, States should, through education,promote understanding, respect, tolerance and non-discrimination in relation to persons living with HIV/AIDS. 

11. Freedom of Expression and Information 

108.Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
states in part that "Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds . . . ". This right, therefore, includes the right to seek, receive and impart HIV-related prevention and care information. Educational material, which may necessarily involve detailed information about transmission risks and may target groups engaged in illegal behaviour, such as injecting drug use and sexual activity between the same sexes, where applicable, should not be wrongfully subject to censorship or obscenity laws or laws making those imparting the information liable for "aiding and abetting" criminal offences. States are obliged to ensure that appropriate and effective information on methods to prevent HIV transmission is developed and disseminated for use in different multicultural contexts and religious traditions. The media should be respectful of human rights and dignity, specifically the right to privacy, and use appropriate language when
reporting on HIV/AIDS. Media reporting on HIV/AIDS should be accurate, factual, sensitive and avoid stereotyping and stigmatization. 

12. Freedom of Assembly and Association 

108.Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that "Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association". This right has been frequently denied to non-governmental
organizations working in the field of human rights, AIDS service organizations (AS0s) and community-based organizations (CBOs), with applications for registration being refused as a result of their perceived criticism of Governments or of the focus of some of their activities,
e.g. sex work. In general, non-governmental or organizations and their members involved in the field of human rights should enjoy the rights and freedoms recognized in human rights instruments and the
protection of national law. In the context of HIV/AIDS, the freedom of assembly and association with others is essential to the formation of HIV-related advocacy, lobby and self help groups to represent interests and meet the needs of various groups affected by HIV/AIDS, including
PLHAS. Public health and an effective response to HIV/AIDS are undermined by obstructing interaction and dialogue with and among such groups, other social actors, civil society and Government. 
108.Furthermore, persons living with HIV/AIDS should be protected against direct or indirect discrimination based on HIV status in their admission to organizations of employers or trade unions, continuation as members and participation in their activities, in conformity with ILO
instruments on freedom of association and collective bargaining. At the same time, workers' and employers' organizations can be important factors in raising awareness on issues connected with HIV/AIDS and in
dealing with its consequences in the workplace. 

13. Right to Participation in Political and Cultural Life 

108.Realization of the right to take Part in the conduct of public affairs, as well as in cultural life, is essential to guaranteeing participation by those most affected by HIV/AIDS in the development and implementation of HIV-related policies and programmes. These human rights are reinforced by the principles of participatory democracy; this assumes the involvement of PLHAs and their families, women, children and groups vulnerable to HIV/AIDS in designing and implementing programmes that will be most effective by being tailored to the specific needs of these groups. It is essential that PLHAs remain fully integrated in the political, economic, social and cultural aspects of community life. 
108.People with HIV/AIDS have the right to their cultural identity and
to various forms of creativity, both as a means of artistic expression
and as a therapeutic activity. Increasing recognition has been given
to the expression of creativity as a popular medium for imparting
HIV/AIDS information, combating intolerance, and as a therapeutic
form of solidarity. 

14. Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical And Mental Health 
108.The right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental
health comprises, inter alia, "the prevention, treatment and control of
epidemic ... diseases" and "the creation of conditions which would as sure to all medical service and medical attention in the event of sickness". 
108..In order to meet these obligations in the context of HIV/AIDS, States should ensure the provision of appropriate HIV-related information,education and support, including access to services for sexually transmitted diseases, to the means of prevention (such as condoms and clean injection equipment) and to voluntary and confidential testing with pre- and post-test counselling, in order to enable individuals to protect themselves and others from infection. States should also ensure a safe blood supply and implementation of "universal precautions" to prevent transmission in settings such as hospitals, doctors' offices, dental practices and acupuncture clinics, as well as informal settings, such as during home births. 
108.States should also ensure access to adequate treatment and drugs, within the overall context of their public health policies, so that people living with HIV/AIDS can live as long and as successfully as possible. PLHAS should also have access to clinical trials and should be free to choose amongst all available drugs and therapies, including alternative therapies.International support is essential from both the public and private sectors,for developing countries for increased access to health care and treatment,drugs and equipment. In this context, States should ensure that neither expired drugs nor other invalid materials are supplied. 
108.States may have to take special measures to ensure that all groups in society, particularly marginalized groups, has equal access to HIV-related prevention, care and treatment services. The human rights obligations of States to prevent discrimination and to assure medical service and medical attention for everyone in the event of sickness require States to ensure that no one is discriminated against in the health-care setting on the basis of their HIV status. 

15. Right to an Adequate Standard of Living And Social Security Services 
108.Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control". Enjoyment of the right to an adequate standard of living is essential to reduce vulnerability to the risk and consequences of HIV infection. It is particularly relevant to meeting the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS, and/or their families, who have become impoverished by HIV/AIDS as a result of increased morbidity due to AIDS and/or discrimination, which can result in unemployment, homelessness and poverty. If States
introduce priority ranking for such services for resource allocation
purposes, then PLHAs and persons with comparable conditions and
disabilities should qualify for preferential treatment due to their dire
circumstances. 
108.States should take steps to ensure that people living with HIV/AIDS are not discriminatorily denied an adequate standard of living and/or social security and support services on the basis of their health status. 

16. Right to Work 

108."Everyone had the right to work ... [and] to just and favourable
conditions of work". The right to work entails the right of every person to access to employment without any precondition except the necessary occupational qualifications. This right is violated when an applicant or employee is required to undergo mandatory testing for HIV and is refused employment or dismissed or refused access to employee benefits on the grounds of a positive result. States should ensure that persons with HIV/ AIDS are allowed to work as long as they can carry out the functions of the job. Thereafter, as with any other illness, PLHAs should be provided with reasonable accommodation to be able to continue working as long as possible and, when no longer able to work, be given equal access to existing sickness and disability schemes. The applicant or employee should not be required to disclose his or her HIV status to the employer nor in connection with his or her access to workers' compensation, pension benefits and health insurance schemes. States' obligations to prevent all forms of discrimination in the workplace, including on the grounds of HIV/AIDS, should extend to the private sector. 
108.As part of favourable conditions of work, all employees have the
right to safe and healthy working conditions. "In the vast majority of
occupations and occupational settings, work does not involve a risk of acquiring or transmitting HIV between workers, from worker to client, or from client to worker." However, where a possibility of transmission does exist in the workplace, such as in health-care settings, States should take measures to minimize the risk of transmission. In particular, workers in the health sector must be properly trained in universal precautions for the avoidance of transmission of infection and be supplied with the means to implement such procedures. 

17. Freedom from Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment Or Punishment 
108.The right to freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment can arise in a variety of ways in the context of HIV/AIDS, for example in the treatment of prisoners. 
108.Imprisonment is punishment by deprivation of liberty but should not
result in the loss of human rights or dignity. In particular, the State,
through prison authorities, owes a duty of care to prisoners, including the duty to protect the rights to life and to health of all persons in custody.Denial to prisoners of access to HIV-related information, education and means of prevention (bleach, condoms, clean injection equipment),voluntary testing and counselling, confidentiality and HIV-related health care and access to and voluntary participation in treatment trials, could constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The duty of care also comprises a duty to combat prison rape and other forms of sexual victimization that may result, inter alia, in HIV transmission. 
108.Thus, all prisoners engaging in dangerous behaviour, including rape and sexual coercion, should be subject to discipline based on their behaviour, without reference to their HIV status. There is no public health or security justification for mandatory HIV testing of prisoners, nor for denying inmates living with HIV/AIDS access to all activities available to the rest of the prison population. Furthermore, the only justification for segregation of PLHAs from the prison population would be for the health of PLHAs themselves. Prisoners with terminal diseases, including AIDS, should be considered for early release and given proper treatment outside prison. 

ANNEXES 
ANNEX I 

History of the recognition of the importance of human rights in the context of HIV / AIDS 

The World Health Organization (WHO) held an International Consultation on health Legislation and Ethics in the Fields of HIV / AIDS in April 1988 at Oslo. It advocated bringing down barriers between people who were infected and those who were not infected and placing actual barriers (e. g. condoms) between individuals and the virus. On 13 May 1988, the World Health Assembly passed resolution WHA41.24 entitled "A voidance of discrimination in relation to HIV -infected people and people with AIDS", which underlined how vital respect for human rights was for the success of national AIDS prevention and control
programmes and urged member States to avoid discriminatory action in the provisions of services, employment and travel. In July 1989, the first international consultation on AIDS and human rights was organized/ GPA. The report of the consultation highlighted the human rights issues raised in the context of HIV /AIDS and proposed the elaboration of guidelines. Resolution WHA45.35 OF 14 May 1992 recognized that there is mandatory screening. In 1990, the World Health Organization conducted regional workshops on the legal and ethical aspects of HIV / AIDS at Seoul, Brazaville and New Delhi. The first of these workshops
developed guidelines to evaluate current and elaborate future legal measures for the control of HIV/AIDS to be used as a check-list by countries considering legal policy issues. In November 1991, the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the International Association of Rights and Humanity held a Pan-European Consultation on HIV/AIDS in the Context of Public Health and Human Rights in Prague, which considered the Rights and Humanity Declaration and Charter and
developed a consensus statement (the Prague Statement). Three further consultations on HIV, law and law reform were convened during 1995 by WHO Regional Office for Europe, for countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. 
The United Nations Development Programme held Inter-Country Consultations on Ethics, Law and HIV in Cebu (Philippines) in May 1993 and in Dakar, in June 1994.Both of these consultations produced consensus documents reaffirming a commitment to voluntarism, ethics and the human rights of those affected (the Cebu Statement of Belief and the Dakar Declaration). UNDP also held Regional Training Workshops on HIV Law and Law Reform in Asia and the Pacific at
Colombo, Beijing and Nadi (Fili) in 1995. 
Law reform programmes focusing on human rights have been ongoing in countries such as Australia, Canada, the United States, South Africa and in the Latin American region, together with networks of legal advocates, practitioners and activists at governmental and community levels. One concrete achievement of such groups has been the successful lobbying for general anti-discrimination legislation at national and local levels which defines disability broadly and sensitively enough to explicitly include HIV / AIDS. Such civil legislation exists in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. In France, such a definition is contained in the Penal Code. Some countries have constitutional guarantees of human rights with practical enforcement mechanisms, such as the Canadian Charter of Rights. 
The United Nations General Assembly, in its resolutions 45/187 of 21 December 1990 and 46/203 of 20 December 1991, emphasized the need to counter discrimination and to respect human rights and recognized that discriminatory measures drove HIV / AIDS underground, making it more difficult to combat, rather than stopping its spread. The Special Reporter of the United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities on discrimination against HIV-infected people and people living with AIDS presented a series of reports to the Sub-Commission between 1990 and 1993. The Special
Reporter’s reports highlighted the need for education prorammes to create a genuine literary to international law. The right to health can only be implemented by advising people of the means of prevention and the Special Reporter made specific reference to the vulnerable situation of women and children in the spread of HIV. Since 1989, the Sub-Commission, at its annual sessions, has adopted resolutions on discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS. 
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights, at its annual sessions since 1990, has also adopted numerous resolutions on human rights and HIV/AIDS which, inter alia, confirm that discrimination on the basis of HIV/AIDS status, actual or presumed, is prohibited by existing international human rights standards and clarify that the term "or other status" used in the non-discrimination clauses of such texts "should be interpreted to include health status, such as HIV /AIDS". 
There have also been prestigious academic international studies of HIV/AIDS and human rights: these include the work of the late Paul Sieghart for the British Medical Association Foundation for AIDS; the Francois-Zavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health; the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies; the National Advisory Committee on AIDS in Canada; the pan American Health OrganizatIon (PAHO); the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law, by the Danish Centre on Human Rights
and by the Georgetown/Johns Hopkins University Program in Law and Public Health. 
Numerous charters and declarations which specifically or generally recognize the human rights of people living with HIV / AIDS have been adopted at national international conference and meetings, including the following; 
London Declaration on AIDS Prevention, World Summit of Ministers of Health, 28 January 1998; Paris Declaration on Women, Children and AIDS, 30 March 1989. Recommendation on the Ethical Issues of HIV Infection in the Health Care and Social Settings, Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg,October 1989 (Rec. 89/14); 
Council of Europe, Committee of Ministers, Recommendation R (87) 25 to member States concerning a common European public health policy to fight AIDS, Strasbourg, 1987; European Union, European Parliament and Council Decisions on "Europe Against AIDS" programme (including dec. 91/317/EEC and dec. 1279/95/EC; Declaration of Basic Rights of Persons with HIV/AIDS, Organizing Committee of the Latin American Network of Community-Based Non-Governmental Organizations
Fighting AIDS, November 1989; Declaration of the Rights of the People with HIV and AIDS, United Kingdom, 1991;Australian Declaration of the Rights of People with HIV/AIDS, National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS, 1991; Prague Statement, Pan-European Consultation on HIV/AIDS in the Context of Public Health and Human Rights, November 1991. Rights and Humanity Declaration and Charter of HIV and AIDS, United Nations Commission on Human Rights, 1992. South African AIDS Consortium Charter of Rights on AIDS and HIV, 1 December
1992; Cebu Statement of Belief, UNDP Inter-Country Consultations on Ethics, Law and HIV, the Philippines, May 1993; Dakar Declaration, UNDP Inter-Country Consultations on Ethics, Law and HIV, Senegal, July 1994; Phnom Penh Declaration on Women and human Rights and the Challenge of HIV/AIDS, Cambodia, November 1994; Malaysian AIDS Charter: Shared Rights, Shared Responsibilities, 1995; Chiang Mai Proposal on Human Rights and Policy for People with HIV / AIDS,
submitted to the Royal Thai Government, September 1995; Asia-Pacific Council of AIDS Service Organization's Compact on Human Rights,
September 1995; Montreal Manifesto of the Universal Rights and Needs of People Living with HIV Disease; Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development, March 1995; New Delhi Declaration and Action Plan on HIV / AIDS, Interdisciplinary International Conference: AIDS, Law and Humanity, December 1995. 
The formulation of the present Guidelines is a culmination of these international,regional and national activities and an attempt to draw on the best features of the documents described above, whilst also focusing on strategic action plant to implement them. It has been noted that, although some positive measures at the national level to promote and protect human rights in the context of HIV / AIDS are in place, a dramatic gap exists between professed policy and implementation
on the ground. It is hoped that these Guidelines, as a practical tool for States in designing, coordinating and implementing their national HIV/AIDS policies and strategies, will assist in closing the gap between principles and practice and be instrumental in creating a rights-based and effective response to HIV/AIDS.