Rights and Humanity Declaration and Charter on HIV/AIDS
In 1991, we drafted The Rights and Humanity Declaration and Charter on HIV/AIDS. This was the first ever "how to" document informing policy makers, professionals and community advocates how to integrate respect for human rights and dignity into policy and action. It explained in detail what could and could not legitimately be done in AIDS prevention and care programmes.
“The Rights and Humanity Declaration and Charter on HIV/AIDS” was drafted by Rights and Humanity’s President, Ms Häusermann and our AIDS Programme Director, Dr Renée Danziger, building on the consensus developed at Rights and Humanity’s Global Expert Meeting in the Hague in 1991,
The Declaration and Charter demonstrated the relevance of human rights norms and the principles of ethics and humanity at each stage of the social and public health response. It covered prevention, surveillance, health care, research, as well as the avoidance of discrimination and the need to tackle the social consequences of the pandemic, such as the plight of AIDS-orphans.
The Rights and Humanity Declaration and Charter on HIV/AIDS was also signed by all participants at our Global Expert Meeting, providing it with the added authority of WHO, Ministers of Health, Ministers of Justice, other global experts and people living with HIV/AIDS.
The Rights and Humanity Declaration and Charter was submitted to the UN Commission on Human Rights on behalf of the Gambian Government the following year by the Minister for Justice, Mr. Hassan Jallow, who had participated in our Hague Expert Meeting. It was published by the UN in 1992 in all six of its official languages – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. Rights and Humanity also translated this document into Portuguese.
Impact
This document has been extremely influential, and has been used by Governments and NGOs in many regions of the world. It formed the background to a series of resolutions which we helped draft in the Commission and Sub-Commission on Human Rights over the coming years and was the impetus for the International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS which Rights and Humanity helped develop under the auspices of the UN in 1996.
Example of Impact
In Thailand a civil society organisation saved lives by successfully using the Rights and Humanity Declaration and Charter on HIV/AIDS to force the government to stop an unethical research project among prostitutes. The project would have failed to inform them of the risk of HIV and the measures available to prevent infection.