Defining rights-based indicators for HIV epidemic transition.

In a Policy Forum, Joseph Amon and colleagues discuss human rights indicators for tracking progress toward ending the HIV epidemic.

Ethical considerations in global HIV phylogenetic research.

Phylogenetic analysis of pathogens is an increasingly powerful way to reduce the spread of epidemics, including HIV. As a result, phylogenetic approaches are becoming embedded in public health and research programmes, as well as outbreak responses, presenting unique ethical, legal, and social issues that are not adequately addressed by existing bioethics literature. We formed a multidisciplinary working group to explore the ethical issues arising from the design of, conduct in, and use of results from HIV phylogenetic studies, and to propose recommendations to minimise the associated risks to both individuals and groups. We identified eight key ethical domains, within which we highlighted factors that make HIV phylogenetic research unique. In this Review, we endeavoured to provide a framework to assist researchers, public health practitioners, and funding institutions to ensure that HIV phylogenetic studies are designed, done, and disseminated in an ethical manner. Our conclusions also have broader relevance for pathogen phylogenetics.

Reviewing independent access to HIV testing, counselling and treatment for adolescents in HIV-specific laws in sub-Saharan Africa: implications for the HIV response.

INTRODUCTION: AIDS is a leading cause of death among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, legal, policy and social barriers continue to restrict their access to HIV services. In recent years, access to independent HIV testing and treatment for adolescents has gained increased attention. The 2013 WHO Guidance on HIV testing and counselling and care for adolescents living with HIV (WHO Guidance) calls for reviewing legal and regulatory frameworks to facilitate adolescents' access to comprehensive HIV services. As of 31 March 2017, some 28 countries in sub-Saharan Africa have adopted HIV-specific legislation. But there is limited understanding of the provisions of these laws on access to HIV services for adolescents and their implication on efforts to scale up HIV prevention, testing, treatment and care among this population. METHODS: A desk review of 28 HIV-specific laws in sub-Saharan Africa complemented with the review of HIV testing policies in four countries using human rights norms and key public health recommendations from the 2013 WHO Guidance. These recommendations call on countries to (i) lower the age of consent to HIV testing and counselling and allow mature adolescents who have not reached the age of consent to independently access HIV testing, (ii) ensure access to HIV counselling for adolescents, (iii) protect the confidentiality of adolescents living with HIV and (iv) facilitate access to HIV treatment for adolescents living with HIV. RESULTS: Most HIV-specific laws fail to take into account human rights principles and public health recommendations for facilitating adolescents' access to HIV services. None of the countries with HIV-specific laws has adopted all four recommendations for access to HIV services for adolescents. Discrepancies exist between HIV laws and national policy documents. Inadequate and conflicting provisions in HIV laws are likely to hinder access to HIV testing, counselling and treatment for adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: Efforts to end legal barriers to access to HIV services for adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa should address HIV-specific laws. Restrictive provisions in these laws should be reformed, and their protective norms effectively implemented including by translating them into national policies and ensuring sensitization and training of healthcare workers and communities. This study reiterates the need for action in all countries across Africa and beyond to review their laws and policies to create an enabling environment to accelerate access to HIV prevention, testing and treatment services for adolescents.

The HIV and AIDS Tribunal of Kenya: An Effective Mechanism for the Enforcement of HIV-related Human Rights?

Established under Section 25 of the HIV Prevention and Control Act of 2006, the HIV and AIDS Tribunal of Kenya is the only HIV-specific statutory body in the world with the mandate to adjudicate cases relating to violations of HIV-related human rights. Yet, very limited research has been done on this tribunal. Based on findings from a desk research and semi-structured interviews of key informants conducted in Kenya, this article analyzes the composition, mandate, procedures, practice, and cases of the tribunal with the aim to appreciate its contribution to the advancement of human rights in the context of HIV. It concludes that, after a sluggish start, the HIV and AIDS Tribunal of Kenya is now keeping its promise to advance the human rights of people living with and affected by HIV in Kenya, notably through addressing barriers to access to justice, swift ruling, and purposeful application of the law. The article, however, highlights various challenges still affecting the tribunal and its effectiveness, and cautions about the replication of this model in other jurisdictions without a full appraisal.

Towards smarter HIV laws: considerations for improving HIV-specific legislation in sub-Saharan Africa.

As of 31 July 2014, some 27 countries in sub-Saharan Africa had adopted HIV-specific legislation to respond to the legal challenges posed by the HIV epidemic. However, serious concerns raised about these laws have led to calls for their repeal and review. Through the theory of "smarter legislation", this article develops a framework for analysing the concerns relating to the process, content and implementation of HIV-specific laws. This theoretical framework provides specific guidance and considerations for reforming HIV-specific laws and for ensuring that they achieve their goals of creating enabling legal environments for the HIV response.

HIV, prisoners, and human rights.

Worldwide, a disproportionate burden of HIV, tuberculosis, and hepatitis is present among current and former prisoners. This problem results from laws, policies, and policing practices that unjustly and discriminatorily detain individuals and fail to ensure continuity of prevention, care, and treatment upon detention, throughout imprisonment, and upon release. These government actions, and the failure to ensure humane prison conditions, constitute violations of human rights to be free of discrimination and cruel and inhuman treatment, to due process of law, and to health. Although interventions to prevent and treat HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and drug dependence have proven successful in prisons and are required by international law, they commonly are not available. Prison health services are often not governed by ministries responsible for national public health programmes, and prison officials are often unwilling to implement effective prevention measures such as needle exchange, condom distribution, and opioid substitution therapy in custodial settings, often based on mistaken ideas about their incompatibility with prison security. In nearly all countries, prisoners face stigma and social marginalisation upon release and frequently are unable to access health and social support services. Reforms in criminal law, policing practices, and justice systems to reduce imprisonment, reforms in the organisation and management of prisons and their health services, and greater investment of resources are needed.

Ending overly broad HIV criminalization: Canadian scientists and clinicians stand for justice.

In Canada, people living with HIV who do not disclose their HIV status prior to sexual acts risk prosecution for aggravated sexual assault even if they have sex with a condom or while having a low (or undetectable) viral load, they had no intent to transmit HIV, and no transmission occurred. In 2013, six distinguished Canadian HIV scientists and clinicians took ground-breaking action to advance justice by co-authoring the "Canadian consensus statement on HIV and its transmission in the context of the criminal law." This effort was born out of the belief that the application of criminal law to HIV non-disclosure was being driven by a poor appreciation of the science of HIV. More than 75 HIV scientists and clinicians Canada-wide have now endorsed the statement, agreeing that "[they] have a professional and ethical responsibility to assist those in the criminal justice system to understand and interpret current medical and scientific evidence regarding HIV." As some 61 countries have adopted laws that specifically allow for HIV criminalization, and prosecutions for HIV non-disclosure, exposure and transmission have been reported in at least 49 countries, the authors hope that others around the world will take similar action.

Leveraging HIV-related human rights achievements through a Framework Convention on Global Health.

Although AIDS remains a leading cause of death, especially in low- and middle-income countries, the movement to address it has greatly contributed to changing the world's response to health challenges. By fusing activism, political leadership, domestic and international investment, and accountability for results, the course of the epidemic has been radically shifted. People living with HIV and others directly affected by the epidemic have exerted immense leadership since the first days of the response: they have fought to end discrimination on the basis of sero-status, gender, sexual orientation, disability, migration status, drug use, or participation in sex work. Some of this mobilization has taken the form of strategic litigation, drawing human rights down into concrete demands and defining social, health, legal, and economic policy. The global AIDS response has shown that at the core of health lie considerations of social justice, human rights, and accountability. As momentum builds for a Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH), we believe there is an opportunity to take stock of lessons learned from the response to HIV and ensure that they are replicated and institutionalized in an eventual Convention. We argue that the most critical aspect to the success of the HIV response has been the leadership and activism of civil society. Conventions do not lead to results on their own, and there should be every expectation that the FCGH will be no different. Success requires active monitoring of progress and shortcomings, combined with political and social mobilization to expand investment and access to the services and underlying conditions that protect and advance health. While the FCGH must make civil society support and engagement an indispensable principle, the AIDS movement can contribute substantive content and mobilization for its adoption. A broad international legal framework for health can help address some of the key legal, policy, regulatory, and programmatic challenges that continue to hinder effective responses to HIV. Thus, the AIDS response potentially has much to gain from the normative and institutional framework, and the expanded commitment to realizing the right to health that can be generated under such a Convention.