Know Your Rights

Rights are there to protect us all when things go wrong. Unfortunately, around the world our rights can sometimes be violated by professionals, the public and the media who may not be aware of these rights.

Human rights laws

“Human rights are inscribed in the hearts of people; they were there long before lawmakers drafted their first proclamation.” – Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights^[i]

Regardless of who we are, where we live, or what we do, every human being has rights. They belong to everyone. Human rights address many aspects of our everyday lives from the right to food, shelter, education and health, to the right to freedom of thought, religion and expression. The core values that are the foundation of human rights are: fairness, respect, equality, dignity, autonomy, universality and participation.^[ii]

This SHE website section describes some of these rights and how we can support one another to protect our rights. It is important to do this so that problems we have experienced in Europe^[iii] do not happen to us or to other HIV positive women and girls again. We are not to blame for what has happened to us. HIV is not a moral issue, despite what we may have been told. It is just a virus that we have been unfortunate enough to acquire along with millions of other people.^[iv] Moreover, we have the right to care and support for the trauma we go through. International,^[i] European^[v] and national human rights declarations can help us to hold to account our governments, public and private healthcare services, our communities, employers, neighbours, faith groups, children’s’ schools and even our own partners and families. This can feel difficult and scary. It may mean questioning and challenging practices in our public healthcare, legal, media and other services or institutions when we feel that our rights are not being respected. Our governments in Europe have all signed up to the international treaties that we are going to discuss here. They have agreed to certain ways of behaving, and need to be held to account on these, by us and by our supporters. We are all in this together, and there are others out there willing to work with us and support us.

Please view and/or download the Pink Section of the SHE toolkit for further information about this subject.

Different areas of human rights laws

As a part of the SHE toolkit session on human rights, you can learn about different aspects of human rights laws in relation to women and HIV which cover the following areas:

Resources on human rights

You can learn more about human rights by looking through the resources below. These resources are here to help you understand your rights and to know what policies may be in place for women living with HIV.

• A Positive Partnership –The HIV Immigration Project
• Meaningful Involvement of Women Living with HIV and AIDS (MIWA): Participation Tree Poster
• WECARe+ Policy Brief – Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
• 10 Reasons Why Criminalization of HIV Exposure or Transmission Harms Women
• Framework for Women, Girls and Gender Equality in National Strategic Plans on HIV and AIDS in Southern and Eastern Africa

There is also an excellent article by Sofia Gruskin and Laura Ferguson in the WHO Bulletin which suggests the need to introduce human rights indicators into monitoring systems as an integral part of public health delivery. Article by Sofia Gruskin and Laura Ferguson .

Here is a list of some key international human rights resources that relate to women and HIV:

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• World Health Organization. Definition: Health
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
• Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights
  This addresses human rights violations experienced by people living with HIV, including discrimination, poverty and violence, and compiles best practice standards.
• Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
• Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV and AIDS (GIPA)
• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
• A Strengthened Commitment to Equality between Women and Men: A Women’s Charter
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
• Declaration of the Right of Sex Workers in Europe
• Global Network of Sex Work Projects
• Scottish Prostitutes Education Project
• International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe
• UN Refugee Agency Concerned by New EU Law on Asylum Seekers
• Refugee Protection- A Guide to International Refugee Law
• The Vienna Declaration

^[i] United Nations Association. Factsheet one: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Available athttp://www.una.org.uk/learnabouthumanrights/Student%20Factsheets/UDHR.pdf. Accessed 21 April 2011.

^[ii] Petretti, Silvia. Human Rights and HIV. Speaking Up: The Diary of an HIV+ Activist. Available athttp://hivpolicyspeakup.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/human-rights-and-hiv/. Accessed 21 April 2011.

^[iii] WECARe+. Launch of WECARe+ (Women in Europe and Central Asia Regions Plus)http://www.wecareplus.net/index.php/page/WECARe+/en Accessed April 2011.

^[iv] UNAIDS, Report on the Global AIDS epidemic 2010. Available athttp://www.childinfo.org/files/Table_Regional_HIV_and_AIDS_statistics_2_Dec_2010.pdf Accessed 20 May 2011

^[v] European Convention on Human Rights. Available athttp://conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/Treaties/Html/005.htm. Accessed 21 April 2011