Action Canada for Population and Development
Panel discussion on the realization of human rights in sustaining and increasing the gains made in the HIV response and leaving no one behind
Thank you, President, Action Canada makes this statement on behalf of the Sexual Rights Initiative.
We should not need the numbers to know that we are pushing millions of people into a health crisis. In the 80s and 90s, millions of people died from AIDS-related illnesses that were treatable and from HIV transmission that was preventable. Callous and calculating states, along with unregulated pharma companies, made it clear that those most affected were disposable – while those who could pay were a source of profit. In the decades that have passed since, states have repeatedly faltered in their commitments to dedicate “maximum available resources” to realising the right to health and ensuring a rights-based, community-led HIV response. Even when states were committed, Global South states’ health budgets buckled under illegitimate debt repayments, IMF-imposed austerity measures, and illicit financial flows.
The successes we have had in responding to HIV - and there have been many - have been those that have placed people most affected at the centre of the response. Community-led responses prioritise people over the profits of transnational companies. States must learn from history and prioritise financing for a robust HIV response, strengthen health systems and scrap laws and policies rooted in archaic morality. States must act NOW, or, as Melody Seherrie reminded us yesterday, we can all sit by and watch as the graveyards start to overflow again.