Legal Aspects of HIV/AIDS

Gable, Lance; Gamharter, Katharina; Gostin, Lawrence O.; Hodge, James G.; Puymbroeck, Rudolf V. Van

doi:10.1596/978-0-8213-7105-3

Cited by 13 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…UNAIDS guidelines [ 8 ] underscore the rights of HIV-positive people to a safe and satisfying sex life and are explicitly opposed, for example, to the enactment of criminal legislation regarding the transmission of HIV. These guidelines, as well as those of the World Bank [ 9 ], also emphasise autonomy of choice with respect to the ability of HIV-positive people to make informed, free decisions regarding their reproductive capacity, in the absence of discrimination. Human rights directives have been prominent in South Africa from the outset of HIV programming and such principles were already evident in an AIDS Plan developed in a participatory process in the early 1990s, in the run-up to the election of the ANC government [ 10 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even in the absence of legal prescriptions, international guidelines speak of an ethical duty [ 9 ] on the part of HIV-positive people to conduct their sexual and reproductive lives in a manner that accepts a responsibility to protect a partner or unborn child. As the UNAIDS guidelines put it, “[p]eople living with HIV, like all people who know or suspect that they are HIV-positive, have a responsibility to practise abstinence or safer sex in order not to expose others to infection” ([ 8 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Framing rights and responsibilities: accounts of women with a history of AIDS activism

MacGregor

Mills

2011

BMC Int Health Hum Rights

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BackgroundIn South Africa, policy with respect to HIV/AIDS has had a strong rights-based framing in line with international trends and in keeping with the constitutional overhaul in the post-Apartheid era. There have also been considerable advances since 1994 towards legal enshrinement of sexual and reproductive health rights and in the provision of related services. Since HIV in this setting has heavily affected women of reproductive age, there has been discussion about the particular needs of this subgroup, especially in the context of service integration. This paper is concerned with the way in which HIV positive women conceptualise these rights and whether they wish and are able to actualise them in their daily lives.MethodsIn 2003 a group of women involved with the Treatment Action Campaign and Medicines Sans Frontières participated in an initiative to ‘map’ their bodies as affected by the virus. A book containing the maps and narratives was published and used as a political tool to pressure the government of the day to roll out antiretroviral therapy (ART) to the population. In 2008, the authors coordinated an initiative that involved conducting follow-up in-depth interviews in which five of these women reflected on those body maps and on how their lives had changed in the intervening five years since gaining the right to treatment through the public sector.ResultsDrawing upon this qualitative data and published sources, these new accounts are analysed in order to reflect the perspectives of these women living with chronic HIV with respect to their sexual relations and fertility desires. The paper reveals difficulties faced by these women in negotiating sexual relationships and disclosure of their HIV positive status. It focuses on how they perceive relative responsibilities in terms of taking preventative measures in sexual encounters. Women adopt tactics within a context characterised by various inequalities in order to ‘make do’, such as by remaining silent about their status. Concerns about childbearing can be addressed by information and support from a health care worker.ConclusionsWomen’s experience of HIV as a chronic illness and the need to adhere to ART, is linked to the way in which the language of responsibility can come to counter-balance a language of rights in treatment programmes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%