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Resolution 1536 (2007)
HIV/AIDS in Europe
1. The Parliamentary Assembly recalls
its Resolution 812 (1983) on the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (Aids), Recommendation 1080 (1988) on a co-ordinated European health policy to prevent
the spread of Aids in prisons, Recommendation 1116 (1989) on Aids and human rights as well as its Resolution 1399 (2004) and Recommendation
1675 (2004) on a European strategy for the promotion of sexual and reproductive
health and rights, in view of the devastating impact HIV/Aids has
on human, social and economic development.
2. It also recalls the International Guidelines on HIV/Aids and
Human Rights, issued by the Joint United Nations programme on HIV/Aids
(UNAIDS) and the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights
in 1998, and the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/Aids adopted by
the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/Aids
in 2001 and the draft political declaration adopted by the United
Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/Aids in 2006, as
well as the European Union statement on HIV prevention for an Aids-free
generation of December 2005.
3. While reaffirming the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, the Assembly
is aware that the achievement of the MDGs, will not be possible
unless progress is made in addressing the challenge of sexually
transmitted infections including HIV/Aids and sexual and reproductive
health and rights.
4. The Assembly is concerned that:
4.1. each year the number of people infected with HIV continues
to rise;
4.2. physiologically and due to discrimination, women are particularly
vulnerable to HIV/Aids;
4.3. ignorance and intolerance – because they lead to discriminatory
acts in the fields of medical assistance, job opportunities, education,
housing and, in general, in every aspect related to the social well-being
of people affected by HIV/Aids – are still a reason for the marginalisation
of persons infected or presumed to be infected by HIV/Aids;
4.4. some governments are still reluctant to acknowledge the
existence and gravity of the HIV/Aids pandemic and to recognise
that the stigma and discrimination faced by people living with HIV/Aids, particularly
women, hampers the effectiveness of responses to this pandemic.
5. The Assembly recognises that the global HIV/Aids pandemic
constitutes a formidable threat to human life and dignity and to
the full enjoyment of human rights, and that the full realisation
of human rights and fundamental freedoms for the people infected
is an essential element in the global response to the pandemic.
6. It also affirms that respect for, and the protection and fulfilment
of, the human rights of women and girls are necessary and fundamental
components in the fight against HIV/Aids. Moreover, this fight cannot
be separated from the fight against poverty, which affects primarily
women and children, thus weakening the workforce and hindering economic
and social development.
7. The Assembly considers that although the use of antiretroviral
medication (ARV) combined with proper therapies can delay the advance
of HIV/Aids, millions of infected people cannot afford these treatments.
In that context, it stresses that under the Agreement on Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) of the
World Trade Organization (WTO), WTO members may allow the production
of patented medicines in the event of health emergencies, and it
encourages World Health Organization (WHO) member states to utilise
fully the flexibility of the TRIPS Agreement to promote access to
ARVs and other essential pharmaceutical products.
8. Aware that, to exercise their rights, people living with HIV/Aids
require non-discriminatory access to services including health care,
treatment and social and legal services, within a supportive social
environment, the Assembly is convinced that:
8.1. recognising the degree of the infection levels of the
HIV/Aids pandemic within each country will help the respective governments
tailor their prevention, treatment, care and support programmes
to meet their particular needs;
8.2. capacity-building in the field of public health is critical
to the effective prevention and treatment of HIV/Aids;
8.3. any response to the epidemic will be effective only if
it addresses the causes of its spread, including human trafficking,
in particular trafficking in women and girls, drug abuse and drug
trafficking and gender-based violence, and in this context the pivotal
roles of the family, religion and long-established fundamental ethical
principles and values need to be underlined.
9. While emphasising that the HIV/Aids pandemic is an emergency
at the medical, social and economic level, the Assembly calls upon
parliaments and governments of the Council of Europe to:
9.1. ensure that their laws, policies
and practices respect human rights in the context of HIV/Aids, in particular
the right to education, work, privacy, protection and access to
prevention, treatment, care and support;
9.2. protect people living with HIV/Aids from all forms of
discrimination in both the public and private sectors, promote gender
equality, ensure privacy and confidentiality in research involving
human subjects, and provide for speedy and effective judicial, administrative
and civil remedies in the event of a violation of the rights of
people living with HIV/Aids;
9.3. ensure the development and accelerated implementation
of national strategies for women’s empowerment by, inter alia, ensuring
they have access to property rights, promoting and protecting women’s
full enjoyment of all human rights, and reducing their vulnerability
to HIV/Aids through the elimination of all forms of discrimination,
as well as all forms of violence against women and girls, including
harmful traditional and customary practices, abuse, rape and other
forms of sexual violence; and protect the right of women living
with HIV/Aids to make free decisions about their sexuality and reproductive
health, in particular by ensuring access to services that prevent
mother-to-child transmission of HIV and provide pregnant women with
access to long-term ARV treatment;
9.4. adopt and finance the measures necessary to ensure, on
a sustained basis and for all affected persons (irrespective of
social or legal status, gender, age or sexual orientation), the
availability and accessibility of quality services and information
for HIV/Aids prevention, management, treatment, care and support,
including the provision of means of HIV/Aids prevention such as
male and female condoms, sterile hypodermic needles, and basic preventive
care kits, as well as affordable ARV medication and other safe and
effective medicines, psychological support, diagnostics and related
technologies for all persons, with particular attention to vulnerable
individuals and groups such as women and children;
9.5. implement measures to increase the capacity of women and
adolescent girls to protect themselves from the risk of HIV infection,
principally through education, including peer education, and access
to the provision of health-care services, including those related
to sexual and reproductive health;
9.6. adopt the measures necessary to continue, intensify, combine,
make mutually beneficial and harmonise national and multinational
research and development efforts aimed at developing new treatments
against HIV/Aids, including medicines prepared specifically for
use in children living with HIV/Aids, new means of prevention and
new diagnostic tools and tests, including vaccines and female-controlled
prevention methods such as microbicides;
9.7. recognise the health, socio-economic and other effects
of HIV/Aids on individuals, families, societies and nations, and
to take the appropriate legislative and executive social measures
to halt its spread;
9.8. adopt and implement policies that respect the human rights
of persons living with HIV/Aids, and through all available media,
to advocate for and raise awareness of their rights;
9.9. develop and implement national legislation and policies
that address the needs and human rights of the growing number of
children orphaned and made vulnerable through the HIV/Aids pandemic;
9.10. ban compulsory HIV/Aids screening for people applying
for travel visas, asylum, jobs or enrolment at a university in favour
of voluntary testing;
9.11. establish co-ordinated, participatory, transparent and
accountable national policies and programmes to combat HIV/Aids,
and to translate these national policies into action at district
and local levels, wherever possible involving, in development and
implementation, non-governmental and community-based organisations,
religious organisations, the private sector, and more importantly, people
living with HIV/Aids, and particularly the most vulnerable among
them, including women and children.
10. The Assembly further invites member states of the Council
of Europe to:
10.1. prepare national
strategies with the aim of stopping the spread of HIV/Aids by 2015
and to begin reversing the trends in the development of this pandemic;
10.2. sponsor the official launch of national HIV/Aids strategies
and the periodic establishment of national and regional reports
taking stock of the degree of achievement of the fight against HIV/Aids
and the achievement of the MDGs, in particular in the field of the
fight against HIV/Aids;
10.3. ensure adequate HIV/Aids awareness training for members
of the military, the police and peacekeeping personnel, in conformity
with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security;
10.4. co-ordinate efforts with and support the work of the United
Nations, non-governmental organisations and other bodies or institutions
involved in HIV/Aids prevention in order to ensure that the human
rights of individuals living with HIV/Aids are upheld and protected;
10.5. address poverty issues, intrinsically linked with HIV/Aids
and implement multisectoral approaches to combat the negative effect
on economic and social development;
10.6. allocate sufficient resources to their health care systems,
including human resources and resources for HIV/Aids prevention,
treatment, care and support, taking into consideration the UNAIDS “Three
Ones” guiding principles for national authorities and their partners;
10.7. implement the measures recommended in the UNAIDS/WHO document
“Guidance on ethics and equitable access to HIV treatment and care”
to promote equity in the distribution of HIV care in settings where
resources are limited.
11. The Assembly calls upon parliaments to:
11.1. draw up laws or amend existing legislation to define national
standards of protection for those suffering from HIV/Aids, especially
for people in vulnerable groups, such as women and children, with particular
attention being paid to the situation of anyone having lost a close
family member as a result of HIV/Aids;
11.2. review and adjust legislation to ensure that it conforms
to the International Guidelines on HIV/Aids and Human Rights;
11.3. enact legislation to punish those who wilfully transmit
HIV/Aids.
12. In order to attain these goals, the Assembly calls upon parliamentarians
to:
12.1. be informed about HIV/Aids
and act as advocates for people living with HIV/Aids and demonstrate
an open-minded approach in dealing with HIV;
12.2. speak out to reduce stigmatisation, social taboos and
discrimination, and address myths;
12.3. visibly demonstrate the political will and commitment
to combating HIV/Aids, participate in national HIV bodies and support
NGOs, including faith-based NGOs and community organisations addressing
sexual and reproductive health and rights, sexually transmitted
infections, HIV/Aids and drug-related issues, as well as private
enterprises working in the area of HIV/Aids;
12.4. create parliamentary committees and/or other structures
formally linked to parliaments with the specific task of tackling
the issue of halting and reversing the spread of HIV/Aids, to share
experience, information and best practices and involve all sectors
of society through partnership programmes in high-level decision-making
processes;
12.5. effectively utilise the parliamentary processes to provide
for increased accountability and strengthen national mechanisms
such as commissions, courts, legislation and co-ordinated strategies to
protect, enforce and monitor, in their respective countries, the
human rights of individuals infected with and affected by HIV/Aids,
and to eliminate all forms of stigma and discrimination, especially
in respect of vulnerable groups.
13. Finally the Assembly calls for special attention to be given
to preventing HIV/Aids by disseminating adequate and target group-oriented
information, using all available media and multipliers, raising
awareness and educating both men and women, with particular attention
paid to adolescent boys and girls; it requests the inclusion of
sex education in school curricula, for both boys and girls, as a
means of prevention; it urges the competent national and local bodies
to give high priority to assisting pregnant and breastfeeding women suffering
from HIV/Aids in order to protect their babies from infection and
provide mothers with an ARV treatment to slow the progress of the
HIV infection and thereby ensure they live longer and healthier
lives.
14. The Assembly considers that it would be useful to study whether
and how the principles, outlined in this resolution as well as in Resolution 1537 (2007) on a future for children with HIV/Aids and Aids orphans
and in Recommendation
1785 (2007) on the spread of HIV/Aids to women and girls in Europe,
may be applied outside the European context and therefore decides
to continue its studies on HIV/Aids in respect of developing countries
and particularly in respect of Sub-Saharan Africa, possibly in close
co-operation with the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), the Association
of European Parliamentarians for Africa (AWEPA) and with competent professional
organisations.