Category: Blog

Sarthak Gupta On July 25, 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) upheld France’s law criminalizing the purchase of sexual services, even between consenting adults, ruling that it does not violate article 8 (right to respect for private life) under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This decision, which has far-reaching implications for sex workers’ rights across Europe, raises significant concerns regarding the Court’s application of the proportionality…

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By Aisuluu Bolotbaeva and Diederik Lohman Last month’s International AIDS Conference, held in Munich, had a strong focus on Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA), and for good reasons. While in every other region the epidemic has slowed and mortality decreased, in the EECA region the epidemic is growing—rapidly. In 2021, an estimated 160,000 people were newly infected with HIV and 44,000 people died of AIDS-related causes, increases of 48%…

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Olivia Cordingley Looking back on the many topics raised at AIDS 2024 last week, one panel which took place in the Sex Worker Networking Zone of the Global Village stands out. The discussion, which included Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, alongside representatives from WHO, UNAIDS, the Global Network on Sex Work Projects, and the University of Southern California, focused on the importance of…

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Joseph J. Amon Unlike many scientific conferences, the AIDS conferences have a long history of community activism and engagement. At this year’s conference, I have seen protests against pharma, marches in support of sex worker rights, a declaration that “there is no problem communities cannot solve”, the (brief) disruption of a plenary session to highlight the targeting of civilians and aid workers in Gaza, and more. These, and formal sessions…

Continue reading “AIDS 2024: HIV is Inherently Political”

Joseph J. Amon The plenary on day 3 of AIDS 2024 had a strong emphasis on HIV, human rights, and politics. Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), gave a rousing talk entitled “Global Health is a Matter of Global Politics”. This linked well with Micheala Clayton’s presentation on criminalization, which referred to the need to focus on political determinants…

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Megan McLemore Front-line activists have described the alarming rise in repressive laws and policies targeting marginalized communities around the world at the 25th International AIDS Conference. Since 2023, the rights of LGBTQI and gender non-conforming people, women, and girls—and rights to free speech and free association—have come under increasing attack in Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Indonesia, Iraq, the United States, and other settings. In Ukraine, HIV advocates and service providers have…

Continue reading “AIDS 2024: Support for Community-led Human Rights Initiatives Needed Urgently”

Joseph J. Amon Greetings again from AIDS 2024. One underlying theme at the conference is attention to global targets and if the “global HIV strategy” (if there is such a singular thing) is on track or off. First, on targets. If you don’t pay close attention, it’s easy to think that HIV target setting is about swapping one set of jargon for another, every five years or so. UNAIDS introduced…

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Joseph J. Amon The AIDS 2024 Conference officially opens today (Monday 22 July) in Munich, Germany, and virtually, with about 15,000 people registered to attend. For those not attending in person or virtually, the conference website has a searchable online program with 2,557 abstracts. In looking through the titles of posters and oral sessions, a number of themes around HIV and human rights will be addressed at the conference. For…

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Patty Skuster and Elisha Dunn-Georgiou Since this blog was originally published on 16 July, President Joe Biden stepped down from the presidential race and Vice President Kamala Harris has become the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. We expect that Harris would remain just as committed to multilateralism as President Biden has been. Importantly, as a US Senator and Vice President, Harris has demonstrated her full-throated commitment to abortion access and…

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Sarthak Gupta On June 13th, 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the case of Daniel Karsai v. Hungary, held that there is no right to self-determined death  (physician-assisted death) under the European Convention of Human Rights (Convention). Karsai, the applicant, is suffering from advanced Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a motor neurone disease that causes loss of muscle control affecting movement, speech, and breathing, and for which there…

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