Conceptualizing a Human Right to Prevention in Global HIV/AIDS Policy

Meier, Benjamin Mason; Brugh, Kristen Nichole; Halima, Yasmin

doi:10.1093/phe/phs034

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 102 publications

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“…While inequalities in access to a cure will make continued support for treatment vital, human rights would support those currently on treatment being shifted voluntarily to a cure as it becomes available, progressively freeing resources currently devoted towards treatment [ 45 ]. Learning from the ways in which past cures have been seen to diminish the political will for prevention [ 46 , 47 ], a health system must continue to provide meaningful opportunities to prevent HIV infection (or reinfection) to protect the collective rights of populations without HIV [ 48 ].…”

Section: Discussion: Human Rights and Access To An Hiv Curementioning

confidence: 99%

Employing human rights frameworks to realize access to an HIV cure

Meier

Gelpi

Kavanagh

et al. 2015

Journal of the International AIDS Society

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IntroductionThe scale of the HIV pandemic – and the stigma, discrimination and violence that surrounded its sudden emergence – catalyzed a public health response that expanded human rights in principle and practice. In the absence of effective treatment, human rights activists initially sought to protect individuals at high risk of HIV infection. With advances in antiretroviral therapy, activists expanded their efforts under international law, advocating under the human right to health for individual access to treatment.DiscussionAs a clinical cure comes within reach, human rights obligations will continue to play a key role in political and programmatic decision-making. Building upon the evolving development and implementation of the human right to health in the global response to HIV, we outline a human rights research agenda to prepare for HIV cure access, investigating the role of human rights law in framing 1) resource allocation, 2) international obligations, 3) intellectual property and 4) freedom from coercion.ConclusionsThe right to health is widely recognized as central to governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental responses to the pandemic and critical both to addressing vulnerability to infection and to ensuring universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. While the advent of an HIV cure will raise new obligations for policymakers in implementing the right to health, the resolution of past debates surrounding HIV prevention and treatment may inform claims for universal access.

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Section: Discussion: Human Rights and Access To An Hiv Curementioning

confidence: 99%

Employing human rights frameworks to realize access to an HIV cure

Meier

Gelpi

Kavanagh

et al. 2015

Journal of the International AIDS Society

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“…Facilitating both prevention and treatment, recent scientific advances alleviate the tension between the collective goal of preventing the spread of disease and the individual goal of treating the dying individual. 26 Today's human rights subject must be understood as a more realistic rights-bearing person who experiences both reciprocal entitlements and responsibilities for themselves, their partners, and their community. Only in this context can we begin to answer the key contemporary question: what must States do to fulfill their human rights obligations on HIV treatment and prevention today?…”

Section: Updating Human Rights Conceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolving Human Rights and the Science of Antiretroviral Medicine

Kavanagh¹,

Cohn²,

Mabote³

et al. 2015

Health and Human Rights

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Recent years have seen significant advances in the science of using antiretroviral medicines (ARVs) to fight HIV. Where not long ago ARVs were used late in disease to prevent sick people from dying, today people living with HIV can use ARVs to achieve viral suppression early in the course of disease. This article reviews the mounting new scientific evidence of major clinical and prevention ARV benefits. This has changed the logic of the AIDS response, eliminating competition between "treatment" and "prevention" and encouraging early initiation of treatment for individual and public health benefit. These breakthroughs have implications for the health-related human rights duties of States. With medical advance, the "highest attainable standard" of health has taken a leap, and with it the rights obligations of States. We argue that access to early treatment for all is now a core State obligation and restricting access to, or failing to provide accurate information about, it violates both individual and collective rights. In a context of real political and technical challenges, however, in this article we review the policy implications of evolving human rights obligations given the new science. National and international legal standards require action on budget, health and intellectual property policy, which we outline.

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“…In many areas of the world, as HIV treatment has become more widely available the focus has shifted from short course anti-retroviral therapy designed to reduce risks of maternal-foetal transmission to more general prevention strategies (UNAIDS, 2012). In a recent paper, Meier et al (2012) describe and defend the human right to prevention not just in the sense of individual treatment but in the sense of treatment as collective prevention for all.…”

Section: Changing Ethical and Public Policy Paradigms?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Much has been written about the comparative benefits of criminalisation and public health strategies for reducing the spread of HIV (e.g. Meier, Brugh and Halima, 2012; Weait, 2005; Wolf and Vezina, 2004; Bayer, 1991). Rather than taking on this fundamental debate, our goal in this paper is to assess the implications of the changes in available forms of treatment and prevention for the continued appeal of criminalisation as an approach to HIV policy.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

HIV treatment as prevention: not an argument for continuing criminalisation of HIV transmission

Francis

2013

International Journal of Law in Context

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HIV prevention and treatment are undergoing impressive technological and practice changes. In-home rapid testing, prophylaxis before risky sex, and treatment as prevention give cause for remarkable optimism and suggest the possibility of an AIDS-free generation. These changes in HIV prevention and treatment might affect HIV policy in several different directions. One direction would be further entrenchment of the currently prevailing punitive approach. A different direction would be a shift away from use of the criminal law as a method for discouraging risky behaviour and towards a strategy aimed to encourage the use of the new treatment and prevention possibilities. When such abrupt technological changes are accompanied by sharp changes in regulatory regimes, they are identified in the public policy literature as a ‘punctuated equilibrium’. A shift away from criminalisation in HIV policy, if sufficiently widespread and transformative, could reach the level of a punctuated equilibrium. This paper presents a critical assessment of the implications of the changes in available forms of treatment and prevention for the continued appeal of criminalisation as an approach to HIV policy. We conclude that criminalisation is less justifiable in the light of what might be circumstances ripe for a punctuated equilibrium.

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Conceptualizing a Human Right to Prevention in Global HIV/AIDS Policy

Cited by 17 publications

References 102 publications

Employing human rights frameworks to realize access to an HIV cure

Employing human rights frameworks to realize access to an HIV cure

Evolving Human Rights and the Science of Antiretroviral Medicine

HIV treatment as prevention: not an argument for continuing criminalisation of HIV transmission

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