Human Rights Standards on HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections

Worldwide, over 37.6 million people are living with HIV, and each year 1.5 million more acquire an HIV infection. Meanwhile, more than 1 million people acquire other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) every day. Untreated, STIs can lead to issues such as infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease, cervical cancer, and poor pregnancy and neonatal outcomes.

HIV and STI case management—delivered via sexual health, reproductive health, and broader primary health care services—includes the detection and treatment of STIs, follow-up, r ...

Worldwide, over 37.6 million people are living with HIV, and each year 1.5 million more acquire an HIV infection. Meanwhile, more than 1 million people acquire other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) every day. Untreated, STIs can lead to issues such as infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease, cervical cancer, and poor pregnancy and neonatal outcomes.

HIV and STI case management—delivered via sexual health, reproductive health, and broader primary health care services—includes the detection and treatment of STIs, follow-up, risk assessment, and behavior-change counseling, including providing condoms, lubricants and voluntary HIV testing. Human rights law recognizes that accurate information, goods, and services for the prevention and treatment of HIV and other STIs, as well as for ensuring good sexual health and well-being, are part of the comprehensive package of SRHR, and that sexual health services need to be available, accessible, acceptable, of high quality, and provided without coercion or discrimination.

The importance of addressing STIs through a human rights-based approach has been most clearly articulated in the context of HIV. All individuals have a human right to the best possible attainable health, which includes the prevention, treatment, and care of HIV. People have the right to access information and education on HIV; preventive interventions (including male and female condoms, lubricants, the management of other STIs, and CSE); voluntary and confidential counseling and testing for HIV; nondiscriminatory health care; and accessible and affordable antiretroviral therapy.

Human rights bodies have specifically recognized states’ obligation to address barriers to an effective HIV response, including by countering stigma and discrimination, inequality, gender-based violence, the denial of SRHR, the misuse of criminal law and punitive approaches, and mandatory procedures such as HIV testing and sterilization or abortion for women living with HIV. Reducing inequalities is critical for ending the HIV epidemic. Key populations – groups that are particularly vulnerable to HIV, including gay men and other men who have sex with men, transgender people, people who inject drugs, and incarcerated people – often lack adequate access to services for prevention and treatment.

Where individuals and communities are able to realize their rights—to education, free association, information, and, most importantly, nondiscrimination—the harmful impact of HIV and other STIs is reduced. With information and access to sexual and reproductive health care, as well as respect for bodily autonomy, people are better able to minimize risk factors for HIV and other STIs. People are more likely to seek testing in environments that are open and supportive, protect them from discrimination, treat them with dignity, and provide them with access to treatment, care, and support, and where criminal laws relating to HIV transmission and key populations are repealed to reduce discrimination and exclusion, including in health care settings. In such environments, people living with and at risk of HIV may be better able to reduce HIV-related impact by seeking and receiving treatment and psychosocial support and by taking measures to prevent HIV infection or transmission to others.

The SDGs seek to end the HIV epidemic by 2030 and to leave no one behind, which requires addressing human rights-related barriers that make people vulnerable to HIV and hinder their access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support services.