Human rights

Definition

Human rights are rights inher­ent to every­one regard­less of nation­al­ity, sex, national or eth­nic ori­gin, color, reli­gion, lan­guage, or any other sta­tus. Human rights are oblig­a­tions bind­ing under inter­na­tional law. They range from the most fun­da­men­tal - the right to life - to those that make life worth liv­ing, such as the rights to food, edu­ca­tion, work, health, and lib­erty.

Most prece­dents reflected in the Lan­guage Com­pendium involve or have rela­tion to human rights. The human right sec­tion of the Lan­guage Com­pendium should be read in com­bi­na­tion with sev­eral other terms, includ­ing access to health prod­ucts, bod­ily auton­omy and integrity, dig­i­tal health, gen­der equal­ity, gen­der iden­tity and expres­sion, key and vul­ner­a­ble pop­u­la­tions, repro­duc­tive rights, sex­ual rights, among oth­ers.

Precedents

2022 Resolution on Violence Against Women Migrant Workers

• “Urges Gov­ern­ments to enhance bilat­eral, regional, inter­re­gional and inter­na­tional coop­er­a­tion to address vio­lence against women migrant work­ers, fully respect­ing inter­na­tional law, includ­ing inter­na­tional human rights law, as well as to strengthen efforts to reduce the vul­ner­a­bil­ity of women migrant work­ers by pro­mot­ing decent work, by, inter alia, adopt­ing min­i­mum wage poli­cies and employ­ment con­tracts in accor­dance with applic­a­ble laws and reg­u­la­tions, facil­i­tat­ing effec­tive access to jus­tice and effec­tive action in the areas of law enforce­ment, pros­e­cu­tion, pre­ven­tion, capac­ity-build­ing and vic­tim pro­tec­tion and sup­port, exchang­ing infor­ma­tion and good prac­tices in com­bat­ing vio­lence and dis­crim­i­na­tion against women migrant work­ers and fos­ter­ing sus­tain­able devel­op­ment alter­na­tives to migra­tion in coun­tries of ori­gin.” (para­graph 14)

• “Also urges Gov­ern­ments to take into account the best inter­ests of the child by adopt­ing or strength­en­ing mea­sures to respect, pro­mote and pro­tect the human rights of migrant chil­dren, espe­cially girls, includ­ing unac­com­pa­nied girls, regard­less of their migra­tory sta­tus, so as to pre­vent traf­fick­ing in per­sons, labour and eco­nomic exploita­tion, dis­crim­i­na­tion, all forms of sex­ual exploita­tion, sex­ual harass­ment, vio­lence and sex­ual abuse of migrant chil­dren, includ­ing in online and dig­i­tal con­texts.” (para­graph 15)

• “Encour­ages States to con­sider ensur­ing that all women migrant work­ers, regard­less of their migra­tion sta­tus, can exer­cise their human rights through safe access to basic ser­vices, notwith­stand­ing that nation­als and reg­u­lar migrants may be enti­tled to more com­pre­hen­sive ser­vice pro­vi­sion, while ensur­ing that any dif­fer­en­tial treat­ment must be based on law, be pro­por­tion­ate and pur­sue a legit­i­mate aim, in accor­dance with inter­na­tional human rights law.” (para­graph 29)

• “Calls upon all Gov­ern­ments to incor­po­rate a human rights, gen­der-respon­sive and peo­ple-cen­tred per­spec­tive in leg­is­la­tion, poli­cies and pro­grammes on inter­na­tional migra­tion and on labour and employ­ment, con­sis­tent with their human rights oblig­a­tions and com­mit­ments under human rights instru­ments, for the pre­ven­tion of and pro­tec­tion of migrant women against vio­lence and dis­crim­i­na­tion, traf­fick­ing in per­sons, exploita­tion and abuse, to take effec­tive mea­sures to ensure that such migra­tion and labour poli­cies do not rein­force dis­crim­i­na­tion, and, where nec­es­sary, to con­duct impact assess­ment stud­ies of such leg­is­la­tion, poli­cies and pro­grammes, and to take into account the need for effec­tive and mean­ing­ful par­tic­i­pa­tion of women migrant work­ers and rel­e­vant civil soci­ety orga­ni­za­tions, as appro­pri­ate, in the for­mu­la­tion of such poli­cies and pro­grammes.” (para­graph 7)

2021 Global AIDS Strategy 2021-2026

• “Less than 10% of coun­tries have puni­tive legal and pol­icy envi­ron­ments that deny or limit access to ser­vices:
  (i) Less than 10% of coun­tries crim­i­nal­ize sex work, pos­ses­sion of small amounts of drugs, same-sex sex­ual behav­iour, and HIV trans­mis­sion, expo­sure or nondis­clo­sure by 2025;
  (ii) Less than 10% of coun­tries lack mech­a­nisms for peo­ple liv­ing with HIV and key pop­u­la­tions to report abuse and dis­crim­i­na­tion and seek redress by 2025;
  (iii) Less than 10% of peo­ple liv­ing with HIV and key pop­u­la­tions lack access to legal ser­vices by 2025;
  (iv) More than 90% of peo­ple liv­ing with HIV who expe­ri­enced rights abuses have sought redress by 2025.” (annex 1, 2025 tar­gets)

• “Efforts to anchor HIV responses in human rights prin­ci­ples and approaches, includ­ing the pri­or­ity actions out­lined below, can only be achieved through strong polit­i­cal lead­er­ship and the active engage­ment and lead­er­ship of com­mu­nity-led responses that are ade­quately resourced to advo­cate for, mon­i­tor and imple­ment rights-based responses.” (para­graph 141)

• “Ensure account­abil­ity for HIV-related human rights vio­la­tions by increas­ing mean­ing­ful access to jus­tice and account­abil­ity for peo­ple liv­ing with or affected by HIV and key pop­u­la­tions. This includes increas­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion among key stake­hold­ers, sup­port­ing legal lit­er­acy pro­grammes, increas­ing access to legal sup­port and rep­re­sen­ta­tion and sup­port­ing com­mu­nity mon­i­tor­ing for peo­ple liv­ing with or affected by HIV.” (para­graph 144(e))

2021 HRC resolution on human rights in the context of HIV and AIDS

• “Affirms that respect for and the pro­tec­tion and ful­fil­ment of human rights in the con­text of HIV, includ­ing uni­ver­sal access to HIV-related pre­ven­tion, diag­no­sis, treat­ment, care and sup­port, are an essen­tial ele­ment in achiev­ing the full real­iza­tion of the right of every­one to the enjoy­ment of the high­est attain­able stan­dard of phys­i­cal and men­tal health and in end­ing AIDS.” (para­graph 1)

2021 Political declaration on HIV and AIDS

• “Note with grave con­cern that the holis­tic needs and human rights of peo­ple liv­ing with, at risk of and affected by HIV, and of women and young peo­ple, remain insuf­fi­ciently addressed because of inad­e­quate inte­gra­tion of health ser­vices, includ­ing sex­ual and repro­duc­tive health-care ser­vices and HIV ser­vices, includ­ing for peo­ple who have expe­ri­enced sex­ual or gen­der-based vio­lence, includ­ing post-expo­sure pro­phy­laxis, legal ser­vices and social pro­tec­tion.” (para­graph 30)

• “

  Com­mit to elim­i­nat­ing HIV-related stigma and dis­crim­i­na­tion and to respect­ing, pro­tect­ing and ful­fill­ing the human rights of peo­ple liv­ing with, at risk of and affected by HIV, through con­crete resource invest­ment and devel­op­ment of guide­lines and train­ing for health-care providers, by:

  (a) Cre­at­ing an enabling legal envi­ron­ment by review­ing and reform­ing, as needed, restric­tive legal and pol­icy frame­works, includ­ing dis­crim­i­na­tory laws and prac­tices that cre­ate bar­ri­ers or rein­force stigma and dis­crim­i­na­tion such as age of con­sent laws and laws related to HIV non-dis­clo­sure, expo­sure and trans­mis­sion, those that impose HIV-related travel restric­tions and manda­tory test­ing and laws that unfairly tar­get peo­ple liv­ing with, at risk of and affected by HIV, with the aim of ensur­ing that less than 10 per cent of coun­tries have restric­tive legal and pol­icy frame­works that lead to the denial or lim­i­ta­tion of access to ser­vices by 2025;
  (b) Adopt­ing and enforc­ing leg­is­la­tion, poli­cies and prac­tices that pre­vent vio­lence and other rights vio­la­tions against peo­ple liv­ing with, at risk of and affected by HIV and pro­tect their right to the high­est attain­able stan­dard of phys­i­cal and men­tal health, right to edu­ca­tion and right to an ade­quate stan­dard of liv­ing, includ­ing ade­quate food, hous­ing, employ­ment and social pro­tec­tion, and that pre­vent the use of laws that dis­crim­i­nate against them;
  (c) Expand­ing invest­ment in soci­etal enablers—includ­ing pro­tec­tion of human rights, reduc­tion of stigma and dis­crim­i­na­tion and law reform, where appro­pri­ate—in low- and mid­dle-income coun­tries to 3.1 bil­lion United States dol­lars by 2025;
  (d) End­ing impunity for human rights vio­la­tions against peo­ple liv­ing with, at risk of and affected by HIV by mean­ing­fully engag­ing and secur­ing access to jus­tice for them through the estab­lish­ment of legal lit­er­acy pro­grammes, increas­ing their access to legal sup­port and rep­re­sen­ta­tion and expand­ing sen­si­ti­za­tion train­ing for judges, law enforce­ment, health-care work­ers, social work­ers and other duty bear­ers.

  ” (para­graph 65)

• “Reaf­firm the Uni­ver­sal Dec­la­ra­tion of Human Rights 14 and com­mit to respect, pro­mote, pro­tect and ful­fil all human rights, which are uni­ver­sal, indi­vis­i­ble, inter­de­pen­dent and inter­re­lated, includ­ing in the con­text of the HIV response, and urge that all human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms, includ­ing the right to devel­op­ment, be inte­grated into all HIV and AIDS poli­cies and pro­grammes.” (para­graph 7)

• “Request­ing the Joint Pro­gramme to con­tinue to sup­port Mem­ber States, within its man­date, in address­ing the social, eco­nomic, polit­i­cal and struc­tural dri­vers of the AIDS epi­demic, includ­ing through the pro­mo­tion of gen­der equal­ity and the empow­er­ment of women, and human rights, by strength­en­ing the capac­i­ties of national Gov­ern­ments to develop com­pre­hen­sive national strate­gies to end AIDS and by advo­cat­ing for greater global polit­i­cal com­mit­ment in respond­ing to the epi­demic.” (para­graph 70(b))

2021 UNESC Resolution on UNAIDS

• “Calls for rein­vig­o­rated efforts to pro­tect human rights and pro­mote gen­der equal­ity in the con­text of HIV and to address social risk fac­tors, includ­ing gen­der-based vio­lence and domes­tic vio­lence, includ­ing inti­mate part­ner vio­lence, which can be under­stood dif­fer­ently in dif­fer­ent con­texts, as well as social and eco­nomic deter­mi­nants of health, with the aim of reduc­ing health inequities within and among coun­tries.” (para­graph 6)

2020 Resolution on violence against women migrant workers

• “Urges Gov­ern­ments to enhance bilat­eral, regional, inter­re­gional and inter­na­tional coop­er­a­tion to address vio­lence against women migrant work­ers, fully respect­ing inter­na­tional law, includ­ing inter­na­tional human rights law, as well as to strengthen efforts to reduce the vul­ner­a­bil­ity of women migrant work­ers by pro­mot­ing decent work, by, inter alia, adopt­ing min­i­mum wage poli­cies and employ­ment con­tracts in accor­dance with applic­a­ble laws and reg­u­la­tions, facil­i­tat­ing effec­tive access to jus­tice and effec­tive action in the areas of law enforce­ment, pros­e­cu­tion, pre­ven­tion, capac­ity-build­ing and vic­tim pro­tec­tion and sup­port, exchang­ing infor­ma­tion and good prac­tices in com­bat­ing vio­lence and dis­crim­i­na­tion against women migrant work­ers and fos­ter­ing sus­tain­able devel­op­ment alter­na­tives to migra­tion in coun­tries of ori­gin.” (para­graph 14)

• “Fur­ther urges Gov­ern­ments to strongly encour­age all stake­hold­ers, espe­cially the pri­vate sec­tor, includ­ing employ­ment agen­cies involved in recruit­ing women migrant work­ers, to strengthen the focus on and fund­ing sup­port for the pre­ven­tion of vio­lence against women migrant work­ers, in par­tic­u­lar by pro­mot­ing the access of women to mean­ing­ful and gen­der-sen­si­tive infor­ma­tion and edu­ca­tion on, inter alia, the costs and ben­e­fits of migra­tion, rights and ben­e­fits to which they are enti­tled in the coun­tries of ori­gin and employ­ment, over­all con­di­tions in coun­tries of employ­ment and pro­ce­dures for legal migra­tion, as well as to ensure that laws and poli­cies gov­ern­ing recruiters, employ­ers and inter­me­di­aries pro­mote adher­ence to and respect for the human rights and, where applic­a­ble, labour rights of migrant work­ers, par­tic­u­larly women.” (para­graph 16)

• “Also calls upon Gov­ern­ments to rec­og­nize the right of women migrant work­ers and their accom­pa­ny­ing chil­dren, regard­less of their migra­tory sta­tus, to have access with­out dis­crim­i­na­tion to emer­gency health care, includ­ing in times of human­i­tar­ian crises, nat­ural dis­as­ters and other emer­gency sit­u­a­tions, and in this regard to ensure that women migrant work­ers are not dis­crim­i­nated against on the grounds of preg­nancy and child­birth and, in accor­dance with national leg­is­la­tion, to address the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties to HIV expe­ri­enced by migrant pop­u­la­tions and sup­port their access to HIV pre­ven­tion, treat­ment, care and sup­port.” (para­graph 22)

• “Encour­ages States to con­sider ensur­ing that all women migrant work­ers, regard­less of their migra­tion sta­tus, can exer­cise their human rights through safe access to basic ser­vices, notwith­stand­ing that nation­als and reg­u­lar migrants may be enti­tled to more com­pre­hen­sive ser­vice pro­vi­sion, while ensur­ing that any dif­fer­en­tial treat­ment must be based on law, be pro­por­tion­ate and pur­sue a legit­i­mate aim, in accor­dance with inter­na­tional human rights law.” (para­graph 27)

• “Urges States to adopt national gen­der-respon­sive migra­tion poli­cies and leg­is­la­tion, in line with rel­e­vant oblig­a­tions under inter­na­tional law, to pro­tect the human rights of all migrant women and girls, regard­less of migra­tion sta­tus; rec­og­nize the skills and edu­ca­tion of women migrant work­ers to pro­mote their eco­nomic empow­er­ment in all sec­tors and, as appro­pri­ate, facil­i­tate their pro­duc­tive employ­ment, decent work and inte­gra­tion into the labour force, includ­ing in the fields of edu­ca­tion and sci­ence and tech­nol­ogy; rec­og­nize the impor­tance of pro­tect­ing labour rights and a safe envi­ron­ment for women migrant work­ers and those in pre­car­i­ous employ­ment, includ­ing pre­vent­ing and address­ing abuse and exploita­tion, pro­tect­ing women migrant work­ers in all sec­tors and pro­mot­ing labour mobil­ity; pro­vide newly arrived migrant women with tar­geted, gen­der-respon­sive, child-sen­si­tive, acces­si­ble and com­pre­hen­sive infor­ma­tion and legal guid­ance on their rights and oblig­a­tions, includ­ing on com­pli­ance with national and local laws, obtain­ing work and res­i­dent per­mits, sta­tus adjust­ments, reg­is­tra­tion with author­i­ties, access to jus­tice to file com­plaints about rights vio­la­tions, as well as access to basic ser­vices; encour­age coop­er­a­tion among var­i­ous stake­hold­ers, includ­ing coun­tries of ori­gin, tran­sit and des­ti­na­tion, in ensur­ing that migrant women and girls have ade­quate iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and the pro­vi­sion of rel­e­vant doc­u­ments to facil­i­tate access to social pro­tec­tion mech­a­nisms; and facil­i­tate the sus­tain­able rein­te­gra­tion of return­ing migrant women and girls by pro­vid­ing them with equal access to social pro­tec­tion and ser­vices.” (para­graph 29)

• “Calls upon all Gov­ern­ments to incor­po­rate a human rights, gen­der-respon­sive and peo­ple-cen­tred per­spec­tive in leg­is­la­tion, poli­cies and pro­grammes on inter­na­tional migra­tion and on labour and employ­ment, con­sis­tent with their human rights oblig­a­tions and com­mit­ments under human rights instru­ments, for the pre­ven­tion of and pro­tec­tion of migrant women against vio­lence and dis­crimin ation, traf­fick­ing in per­sons, exploita­tion and abuse, to take effec­tive mea­sures to ensure that such migra­tion and labour poli­cies do not rein­force dis­crim­i­na­tion, and, where nec­es­sary, to con­duct impact assess­ment stud­ies of such leg­is­la­tion, poli­cies and pro­grammes, and to take into account the need for effec­tive and mean­ing­ful par­tic­i­pa­tion of women migrant work­ers and rel­e­vant civil soci­ety orga­ni­za­tions, as appro­pri­ate, in the for­mu­la­tion of such poli­cies and pro­grammes.” (para­graph 7)

• “Calls upon Gov­ern­ments to adopt or strengthen mea­sures to pro­tect the human rights of women migrant work­ers, includ­ing domes­tic work­ers, regard­less of their migra­tory sta­tus, includ­ing in poli­cies that reg­u­late the recruit­ment and deploy­ment of women migrant work­ers, to con­sider expand­ing dia­logue among States on devis­ing inno­v­a­tive meth­ods to pro­mote legal chan­nels of migra­tion in order to deter irreg­u­lar migra­tion, to con­sider incor­po­rat­ing a gen­der per­spec­tive into immi­gra­tion laws in order to pre­vent dis­crim­i­na­tion and vio­lence against women, includ­ing in inde­pen­dent, cir­cu­lar and tem­po­rary migra­tion, and to con­sider per­mit­ting, in accor­dance with national leg­is­la­tion, women migrant work­ers who are vic­tims of vio­lence, traf­fick­ing in per­sons or other forms of exploita­tion or abuse to apply for res­i­dency per­mits inde­pen­dently of abu­sive employ­ers or spouses, and to elim­i­nate abu­sive spon­sor­ship sys­tems.” (para­graph 8)

2019 Political declaration of the HLM on UHC

• “Imple­ment mea­sures to pro­mote and improve men­tal health and well-being as an essen­tial com­po­nent of uni­ver­sal health cov­er­age, includ­ing by scal­ing up com­pre­hen­sive and inte­grated ser­vices for pre­ven­tion, includ­ing sui­cide pre­ven­tion, as well as treat­ment for peo­ple with men­tal dis­or­ders and other men­tal health con­di­tions as well as neu­ro­log­i­cal dis­or­ders, pro­vid­ing psy­choso­cial sup­port, pro­mot­ing well-being, strength­en­ing the pre­ven­tion and treat­ment of sub­stance abuse, address­ing social deter­mi­nants and other health needs, and fully respect­ing their human rights, not­ing that men­tal dis­or­ders and other men­tal health con­di­tions as well as neu­ro­log­i­cal dis­or­ders are an impor­tant cause of mor­bid­ity and con­trib­ute to the non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases bur­den world­wide.” (para­graph 36)

2019 UNESC Resolution on UNAIDS

• “Calls for urgent action and part­ner­ship by Mem­ber States, the United Nations sys­tem, civil soci­ety, local com­mu­ni­ties, the pri­vate sec­tor and other stake­hold­ers to scale up evi­dence-based HIV pre­ven­tion, test­ing, treat­ment, care and reten­tion, includ­ing access to safe, effec­tive, qual­ity and afford­able med­i­cines, includ­ing gener­ics, viral load test­ing in pur­suit of achiev­ing viral load sup­pres­sion, and tuber­cu­lo­sis pre­ven­ta­tive treat­ment, to ensure that those ser­vices reach the peo­ple who need them the most, includ­ing key pop­u­la­tions that epi­demi­o­log­i­cal evi­dence shows to be glob­ally at higher risk of HIV infec­tion, ado­les­cent girls and young women, and calls for rein­vig­o­rated efforts to pro­tect human rights and pro­mote gen­der equal­ity and to address social risk fac­tors, includ­ing gen­der-based vio­lence, as well as social and eco­nomic deter­mi­nants of health.” (para­graph 4)

2018 HRC Resolution on human rights in the context of HIV and AIDS

• “Affirms that respect for and the pro­tec­tion and ful­fil­ment of human rights in the con­text of HIV, includ­ing uni­ver­sal access to HIV-related pre­ven­tion, diag­no­sis, treat­ment, care and sup­port, are an essen­tial ele­ment in achiev­ing the full real­iza­tion of the right of every­one to the enjoy­ment of the high­est attain­able stan­dard of phys­i­cal and men­tal health and in end­ing AIDS.” (para­graph 1)

• “Strongly encour­ages States, in the con­text of HIV pre­ven­tion, diag­no­sis, treat­ment, care and sup­port, to pro­vide human rights edu­ca­tion and train­ing for health work­ers, the police, law enforce­ment offi­cers and prison staff, and other rel­e­vant pro­fes­sions, with a spe­cial focus on non-dis­crim­i­na­tion, free and informed con­sent and respect for the will and pref­er­ences of all, con­fi­den­tial­ity and pri­vacy, and non-harass­ment, so as to allow out­reach and other ser­vice activ­i­ties and to exchange best prac­tices in this regard.” (para­graph 11)

• “Urges States to bring their laws, poli­cies and prac­tices, includ­ing their strate­gies for imple­ment­ing the HIV- and other health-related Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals, fully into com­pli­ance with their oblig­a­tions under inter­na­tional human rights law, and to review or repeal those that are dis­crim­i­na­tory or that adversely affect the suc­cess­ful, effec­tive and equi­table deliv­ery of HIV pre­ven­tion, diag­no­sis, treat­ment, care and sup­port pro­grammes for all per­sons liv­ing with, pre­sumed to be liv­ing with, at risk of or affected by HIV, includ­ing key pop­u­la­tions.” (para­graph 5)

2018 Political declaration of the HLM on the fight against TB

• “Rec­og­nize the var­i­ous socio­cul­tural bar­ri­ers to tuber­cu­lo­sis pre­ven­tion, diag­no­sis and treat­ment ser­vices, espe­cially for those who are vul­ner­a­ble or in vul­ner­a­ble sit­u­a­tions, and the need to develop inte­grated, peo­ple-cen­tred, com­mu­nity-based and gen­der-respon­sive health ser­vices based on human rights.” (para­graph 18)

• “Com­mit to devel­op­ing com­mu­nity-based health ser­vices through approaches that pro­tect and pro­mote equity, ethics, gen­der equal­ity and human rights in address­ing tuber­cu­lo­sis by focus­ing on pre­ven­tion, diag­no­sis, treat­ment and care, includ­ing socioe­co­nomic and psy­choso­cial sup­port, based on indi­vid­ual needs, that reduce stigma, and inte­grated care for related health con­di­tions, such as HIV and AIDS, under­nu­tri­tion, men­tal health, non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases includ­ing dia­betes and chronic lung dis­ease, and tobacco use, harm­ful use of alco­hol and other sub­stance abuse, includ­ing drug injec­tion, with access to exist­ing and new tools.” (para­graph 26)

2018 Political declaration of the third HLM on NCDs

• “Take the nec­es­sary mea­sures to rec­og­nize the right of every­one to the enjoy­ment of the high­est attain­able stan­dard of phys­i­cal and men­tal health across the life course, in respect­ing human rights oblig­a­tions and address­ing the spe­cific health needs of chil­dren, women, older per­sons, per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties and oth­ers who are more vul­ner­a­ble to non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases.” (para­graph 28)

2017 Resolution on international cooperation to address and counter the world drug problem

• “Empha­sizes the need to enhance the knowl­edge of pol­i­cy­mak­ers and the capac­ity, as appro­pri­ate, of rel­e­vant national author­i­ties on var­i­ous aspects of the world drug prob­lem in order to ensure that national drug poli­cies, as part of a com­pre­hen­sive, inte­grated and bal­anced approach, fully respect all human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms and pro­tect the health, safety and well-being of indi­vid­u­als, fam­i­lies, vul­ner­a­ble mem­bers of soci­ety, com­mu­ni­ties and soci­ety as a whole, and to that end encour­ages the coop­er­a­tion of Mem­ber States with, and coop­er­a­tion among, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Inter­na­tional Nar­cotics Con­trol Board, the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion and other rel­e­vant United Nations enti­ties, within their respec­tive man­dates, includ­ing those rel­e­vant to the above-men­tioned issues, and rel­e­vant regional and inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions, as well as with civil soci­ety and the pri­vate sec­tor, as appro­pri­ate.” (para­graph 27)

• “Encour­ages the pro­mo­tion, where appro­pri­ate, in the frame­work of inter­na­tional coop­er­a­tion, of the use of law enforce­ment tech­niques, con­sis­tent with national leg­is­la­tion and inter­na­tional law, includ­ing applic­a­ble human rights oblig­a­tions, in order to ensure that drug traf­fick­ers are brought to jus­tice and that major crim­i­nal orga­ni­za­tions are dis­rupted and dis­man­tled.” (para­graph 38)

2016 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS

• “Empha­size the con­tin­ued impor­tance, par­tic­u­larly given the 2015 World Health Orga­ni­za­tion guide­lines rec­om­mend­ing that anti­retro­vi­ral ther­apy be ini­ti­ated for every­one liv­ing with HIV at any CD4 cell count, of a more inte­grated and sys­temic approach to address­ing peo­ple’s access to qual­ity, peo­ple-cen­tred health-care ser­vices in a more holis­tic man­ner, in the con­text of pro­mot­ing the right to the enjoy­ment of the high­est attain­able stan­dard of phys­i­cal and men­tal health and well-being, uni­ver­sal access to sex­ual and repro­duc­tive health and repro­duc­tive rights in accor­dance with the Pro­gramme of Action of the Inter­na­tional Con­fer­ence on Pop­u­la­tion and Devel­op­ment and the Bei­jing Plat­form for Action and the out­come doc­u­ments of their review con­fer­ences, uni­ver­sal health cov­er­age, social pro­tec­tion for peo­ple in vul­ner­a­ble sit­u­a­tions, strength­en­ing of local, national and inter­na­tional health and social pro­tec­tion sys­tems, includ­ing com­mu­nity sys­tems, inte­grated responses to address non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases and HIV and AIDS, and pre­pared­ness to tackle emerg­ing dis­ease out­breaks, such as the Ebola and Zika virus dis­ease out­breaks and those yet to be iden­ti­fied, and other health threats.” (para­graph 14)

• “Empha­size that the mean­ing­ful involve­ment of peo­ple liv­ing with, at risk of and affected by HIV and pop­u­la­tions at higher risk of HIV facil­i­tates the achieve­ment of more effec­tive AIDS responses and that peo­ple liv­ing with, at risk of and affected by HIV should enjoy equally all human rights and enjoy equal par­tic­i­pa­tion in civil, polit­i­cal, social, eco­nomic and cul­tural life, with­out prej­u­dice, stigma or dis­crim­i­na­tion of any kind.” (para­graph 21)

• “Note with grave con­cern that the holis­tic needs and human rights of peo­ple liv­ing with, at risk of and affected by HIV, and of young peo­ple, remain insuf­fi­ciently addressed because of inad­e­quate inte­gra­tion of health ser­vices, includ­ing sex­ual and repro­duc­tive health-care and HIV ser­vices, includ­ing for peo­ple who have expe­ri­enced sex­ual or gen­der-based vio­lence, includ­ing post-expo­sure pro­phy­laxis, legal ser­vices and social pro­tec­tion.” (para­graph 47)

• “Reaf­firm that the pro­mo­tion and pro­tec­tion of, and respect for, the human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms of all, includ­ing the right to devel­op­ment, which are uni­ver­sal, indi­vis­i­ble, inter­de­pen­dent and inter­re­lated, should be main­streamed into all HIV and AIDS poli­cies and pro­grammes, and also reaf­firm the need to take mea­sures to ensure that every per­son is enti­tled to par­tic­i­pate in, con­trib­ute to and enjoy eco­nomic, social, cul­tural and polit­i­cal devel­op­ment and that equal atten­tion and urgent con­sid­er­a­tion should be given to the pro­mo­tion, pro­tec­tion and ful­fil­ment of all human rights.” (para­graph 7)

2016 HRC Resolution on civil society space

• “Reminds States of their oblig­a­tion to respect and fully pro­tect the civil, polit­i­cal, eco­nomic, social and cul­tural rights of all indi­vid­u­als, inter alia, the rights to free­dom of expres­sion and opin­ion and to assem­ble peace­fully and asso­ciate freely, online as well as offline, includ­ing for per­sons espous­ing minor­ity or dis­sent­ing views or beliefs, and that respect for all such rights, in rela­tion to civil soci­ety, con­trib­utes to address­ing and resolv­ing chal­lenges and issues that are impor­tant to soci­ety, such as address­ing finan­cial and eco­nomic crises, respond­ing to pub­lic health crises, respond­ing to human­i­tar­ian crises, includ­ing in the con­text of armed con­flict, pro­mot­ing the rule of law and account­abil­ity, achiev­ing tran­si­tional jus­tice goals, pro­tect­ing the envi­ron­ment, real­iz­ing the right to devel­op­ment, empow­er­ing per­sons belong­ing to minori­ties and vul­ner­a­ble groups, com­bat­ing racism and racial dis­crim­i­na­tion, sup­port­ing crime pre­ven­tion, coun­ter­ing cor­rup­tion, pro­mot­ing cor­po­rate social respon­si­bil­ity and account­abil­ity, com­bat­ing human traf­fick­ing, empow­er­ing women and youth, pro­mot­ing the rights of the child, advanc­ing social jus­tice and con­sumer pro­tec­tion, the real­iza­tion of all human rights and the imple­men­ta­tion of the 2030 Agenda for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment.” (para­graph 3)

• “Also urges States to cre­ate and main­tain, in law and in prac­tice, a safe and enabling envi­ron­ment for civil soci­ety, and in this regard encour­ages States to use good prac­tices such as, inter alia, those com­piled in the report of the High Com­mis­sioner on prac­ti­cal rec­om­men­da­tions for the cre­ation and main­te­nance of a safe and enabling envi­ron­ment for civil soci­ety, based on good prac­tices and lessons learned by, inter alia:
  (a) Tak­ing steps to ensure a sup­port­ive legal frame­work and access to jus­tice, includ­ing by acknowl­edg­ing pub­licly the impor­tant and legit­i­mate role of civil soci­ety in the pro­mo­tion of human rights, democ­racy and the rule of law, includ­ing through pub­lic state­ments and pub­lic infor­ma­tion cam­paigns, and bet­ter address­ing busi­ness-related human rights abuses through the effec­tive imple­men­ta­tion of the Guid­ing Prin­ci­ples on Busi­ness and Human Rights;
  (b) Con­tribut­ing to a pub­lic and polit­i­cal envi­ron­ment con­ducive to civil soci­ety work, includ­ing by strength­en­ing the rule of law, the admin­is­tra­tion of jus­tice, social and eco­nomic devel­op­ment, access to infor­ma­tion, the pro­mo­tion of the rights to free­dom of opin­ion and expres­sion online and offline, and of peace­ful assem­bly and asso­ci­a­tion, and by par­tic­i­pat­ing in pub­lic affairs and pro­mot­ing the real and effec­tive par­tic­i­pa­tion of the peo­ple in deci­sion-mak­ing processes, and tak­ing steps to ensure that all domes­tic legal pro­vi­sions with an impact on civil soci­ety actors, includ­ing counter-ter­ror­ism mea­sures, com­ply with rel­e­vant inter­na­tional human rights oblig­a­tions and com­mit­ments, includ­ing the Dec­la­ra­tion on the Right and Respon­si­bil­ity of Indi­vid­u­als, Groups and Organs of Soci­ety to Pro­mote and Pro­tect Uni­ver­sally Rec­og­nized Human Rights and Fun­da­men­tal Free­doms, main­tain­ing acces­si­ble domes­tic pro­ce­dures for the estab­lish­ment or reg­is­tra­tion of orga­ni­za­tions and asso­ci­a­tions, and access to national, regional and inter­na­tional human rights mech­a­nisms;
  (c) Pro­vid­ing for access to infor­ma­tion, includ­ing by adopt­ing clear laws and poli­cies pro­vid­ing for effec­tive dis­clo­sure of infor­ma­tion held by pub­lic author­i­ties and a gen­eral right to request and receive infor­ma­tion sub­ject to clearly and strictly defined excep­tions in accor­dance with inter­na­tional human rights law;
  (d) Pro­vid­ing for the par­tic­i­pa­tion of civil soci­ety actors, includ­ing by enabling them to par­tic­i­pate in pub­lic debate on deci­sions that would con­trib­ute to the pro­mo­tion and pro­tec­tion of human rights and the rule of law and on any other rel­e­vant deci­sions, and to pro­vide input on the poten­tial impli­ca­tions of leg­is­la­tion when it is being devel­oped, debated, imple­mented or reviewed, and explor­ing new forms of par­tic­i­pa­tion and oppor­tu­ni­ties brought about by infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tions tech­nol­ogy and social media;
  (e) Pro­vid­ing for a long-term sup­port­ive envi­ron­ment for civil soci­ety, includ­ing through edu­ca­tion that is aimed at strength­en­ing respect for human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms.” (para­graph 3)

• “Urges States to ensure access to jus­tice, and account­abil­ity, and to end impunity for human rights vio­la­tions and abuses against civil soci­ety actors, includ­ing by putting in place, and where nec­es­sary review­ing and amend­ing, rel­e­vant laws, poli­cies, insti­tu­tions and mech­a­nisms to cre­ate and main­tain a safe and enabling envi­ron­ment in which civil soci­ety can oper­ate free from hin­drance, inse­cu­rity and reprisals.” (para­graph 7)

• “Urges all non-State actors to respect all human rights and not to under­mine the capac­ity of civil soci­ety to oper­ate free from hin­drance and inse­cu­rity.” (para­graph 9)

2016 CND Gender Perspective in Drug-related Policies and Programmes

• “Encour­ages Mem­ber States to take into con­sid­er­a­tion the spe­cific needs and cir­cum­stances of women sub­ject to arrest, deten­tion, pros­e­cu­tion, trial or the imple­men­ta­tion of a sen­tence for drug-related offences when devel­op­ing gen­der-spe­cific mea­sures as an inte­gral part of their poli­cies on crime pre­ven­tion and crim­i­nal jus­tice, includ­ing appro­pri­ate mea­sures to bring to jus­tice per­pe­tra­tors of abuse of women in cus­tody or in prison set­tings for drug-related offences, and to draw, as appro­pri­ate, on the United Nations Rules for the Treat­ment of Women Pris­on­ers and Non-cus­to­dial Mea­sures for Women Offend­ers (the Bangkok Rules), the United Nations Stan­dard Min­i­mum Rules for Non-cus­to­dial Mea­sures (the Tokyo Rules) and the United Nations Stan­dard Min­i­mum Rules for the Treat­ment of Pris­on­ers (the Nel­son Man­dela Rules).” (para­graph 4)

2016 Resolution on the girl child

• “Urges all States to enact, uphold and strictly enforce laws and poli­cies aimed at pre­vent­ing and end­ing child, early and forced mar­riage and pro­tect­ing those at risk and to ensure that mar­riage is entered into only with the informed, free and full con­sent of the intend­ing spouses, to enact and strictly enforce laws con­cern­ing the min­i­mum legal age of con­sent and the min­i­mum age for mar­riage, to raise the min­i­mum age for mar­riage, engage all rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers, includ­ing girls, where nec­es­sary, and ensure that these laws are well known, to fur­ther develop and imple­ment holis­tic, com­pre­hen­sive and coor­di­nated poli­cies, plans of action and pro­grammes and to sup­port already mar­ried girls and ado­les­cents and ensure the pro­vi­sion of viable alter­na­tives and insti­tu­tional sup­port, espe­cially edu­ca­tional oppor­tu­ni­ties for girls, to ensure the sur­vival, pro­tec­tion, devel­op­ment and advance­ment of the girl child in order to pro­mote and pro­tect the full enjoy­ment of her human rights and to ensure equal oppor­tu­ni­ties for girls, includ­ing by mak­ing such plans an inte­gral part of her total devel­op­ment process.” (para­graph 13)

• “Urges States to take all mea­sures nec­es­sary to ensure the full enjoy­ment by girls with dis­abil­i­ties of all human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms, on an equal basis with other chil­dren, and to adopt, imple­ment and strengthen appro­pri­ate poli­cies and pro­grammes designed to address their needs.” (para­graph 19)

2011 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS

• “Reaf­firm the com­mit­ment to ful­fil oblig­a­tions to pro­mote uni­ver­sal respect for and the obser­vance and pro­tec­tion of all human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms for all in accor­dance with the Char­ter, the Uni­ver­sal Dec­la­ra­tion of Human Rights and other instru­ments relat­ing to human rights and inter­na­tional law; and empha­size the impor­tance of cul­tural, eth­i­cal and reli­gious val­ues, the vital role of the fam­ily and the com­mu­nity and, in par­tic­u­lar, of peo­ple liv­ing with and affected by HIV, includ­ing their fam­i­lies, and the need to take into account the par­tic­u­lar­i­ties of each coun­try in sus­tain­ing national HIV and AIDS responses, reach­ing all peo­ple liv­ing with HIV, deliv­er­ing HIV pre­ven­tion, treat­ment, care and sup­port and strength­en­ing health sys­tems, in par­tic­u­lar pri­mary health care.” (para­graph 38)

• “Com­mit to inten­sify national efforts to cre­ate enabling legal, social and pol­icy frame­works in each national con­text in order to elim­i­nate stigma, dis­crim­i­na­tion and vio­lence related to HIV and pro­mote access to HIV pre­ven­tion, treat­ment, care and sup­port and non-dis­crim­i­na­tory access to edu­ca­tion, health care, employ­ment and social ser­vices, pro­vide legal pro­tec­tions for peo­ple affected by HIV, includ­ing inher­i­tance rights and respect for pri­vacy and con­fi­den­tial­ity, and pro­mote and pro­tect all human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms, with par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to all peo­ple vul­ner­a­ble to and affected by HIV.” (para­graph 77)

2011 Resolution on trafficking in women and girls

• “Urges Gov­ern­ments to devise, enforce and strengthen effec­tive gen­der- and age-sen­si­tive mea­sures to com­bat and elim­i­nate all forms of traf­fick­ing in women and girls, includ­ing for sex­ual and eco­nomic exploita­tion, as part of a com­pre­hen­sive anti-traf­fick­ing strat­egy that inte­grates a human rights per­spec­tive, and to draw up, as appro­pri­ate, national action plans in this regard.” (para­graph 10)

• “Urges Gov­ern­ments to pro­vide or strengthen train­ing for, and to raise aware­ness among, law enforce­ment, judi­cial, immi­gra­tion and other rel­e­vant offi­cials on the pre­ven­tion and com­bat­ing of traf­fick­ing in per­sons, includ­ing the sex­ual exploita­tion of women and girls, and in this regard calls upon Gov­ern­ments to ensure that the treat­ment of vic­tims of traf­fick­ing, espe­cially by law enforce­ment offi­cials, immi­gra­tion offi­cers, con­sular offi­cials, social work­ers and other first response offi­cials, is con­ducted with full respect for the human rights of those vic­tims and with gen­der and age sen­si­tiv­ity and observes the prin­ci­ples of non-dis­crim­i­na­tion, includ­ing the pro­hi­bi­tion of racial dis­crim­i­na­tion.” (para­graph 23)

2010 HRC On the rights of the child: the fight against sexual violence

• “Urges all States to estab­lish, main­tain, strengthen or des­ig­nate, in com­ple­men­tar­ity with effec­tive gov­ern­men­tal struc­tures for chil­dren, inde­pen­dent chil­dren’s rights insti­tu­tions, such as chil­dren’s ombudsper­sons or equiv­a­lents or focal points on chil­dren’s rights in exist­ing national human rights insti­tu­tions or gen­eral ombudsper­son offices, that are suf­fi­ciently funded and acces­si­ble to chil­dren, which should play a key role in the inde­pen­dent mon­i­tor­ing of actions taken to pro­mote and pro­tect the rights of the child, includ­ing the pre­ven­tion of sex­ual vio­lence and abuse against chil­dren, and to pro­mote the uni­ver­sal real­iza­tion of rights of child vic­tims of sex­ual vio­lence and abuse.” (para­graph 2(f))

2006 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS

• “Com­mit our­selves to inten­si­fy­ing efforts to enact, strengthen or enforce, as appro­pri­ate, leg­is­la­tion, reg­u­la­tions and other mea­sures to elim­i­nate all forms of dis­crim­i­na­tion against and to ensure the full enjoy­ment of all human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms by peo­ple liv­ing with HIV and mem­bers of vul­ner­a­ble groups, in par­tic­u­lar to ensure their access to, inter alia, edu­ca­tion, inher­i­tance, employ­ment, health care, social and health ser­vices, pre­ven­tion, sup­port and treat­ment, infor­ma­tion and legal pro­tec­tion, while respect­ing their pri­vacy and con­fi­den­tial­ity; and devel­op­ing strate­gies to com­bat stigma and social exclu­sion con­nected with the epi­demic.” (para­graph 31)

2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS

• “By 2003, enact, strengthen, or enforce, as appro­pri­ate, leg­is­la­tion, reg­u­la­tions and other mea­sures to elim­i­nate all forms of dis­crim­i­na­tion against and to ensure the full enjoy­ment of all human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms by peo­ple liv­ing with HIV/AIDS and mem­bers of vul­ner­a­ble groups, in par­tic­u­lar to ensure their access to, inter alia, edu­ca­tion, inher­i­tance, employ­ment, health care, social and health ser­vices, pre­ven­tion, sup­port, and treat­ment, infor­ma­tion and legal pro­tec­tion, while respect­ing their pri­vacy and con­fi­den­tial­ity; and develop strate­gies to com­bat stigma and social exclu­sion con­nected with the epi­demic.” (para­graph 58)

Expert precedents

2022 OHCHR Annual Report on Human Rights and HIV/AIDS

• “Rec­om­mend that States that have not yet con­ducted an assess­ment of the extent to which exist­ing legal and pol­icy frame­works com­ply with the human rights norms and gen­der equal­ity norms applic­a­ble to the HIV response, and of their com­mit­ments under the Polit­i­cal Dec­la­ra­tion, do so through a process involv­ing the mean­ing­ful par­tic­i­pa­tion of stake­hold­ers, includ­ing key pop­u­la­tions, women and girls and young peo­ple.” (para­graph 15 (a))

• “Rec­om­mend that vio­lence, abuse and dis­crim­i­na­tion against peo­ple from key pop­u­la­tions be mon­i­tored, reported and addressed with a view to pre­ven­tion and redress, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with key pop­u­la­tion-led orga­ni­za­tions; this includes pro­vid­ing HIV-sen­si­tive, read­ily avail­able, afford­able judi­cial, quasi-judi­cial and other mech­a­nisms toad­dress HIV-related human rights vio­la­tions. Bar­ri­ers such as cost, lack of legal lit­er­acy or legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion should be elim­i­nated.” (para­graph 15(e))

• “Rec­om­mend that States Imple­ment exist­ing tech­ni­cal and other guid­ance on imple­ment­ing a human rights-based approach to HIV/AIDS, includ­ing the Inter­na­tional Guide­lines on Human Rights and Drug Pol­icy, the Inter­na­tional Guide­lines on HIV and Human Rights and the report and sup­ple­ment of the Global Com­mis­sion on HIV and the Law.” (para­graph 35(c))

2022 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health

• “The oper­a­tional­iza­tion of the right-to-health approach requires a focus on national, regional and inter­na­tional legal frame­works, the strength­en­ing of health sys­tems, data and report­ing, clin­i­cal response and pre­ven­tion. It is also impor­tant to focus on the resourc­ing and financ­ing of com­pre­hen­sive solu­tions cen­tred around the restora­tion of dig­nity of all peo­ple, achieved when deci­sions include mean­ing­ful par­tic­i­pa­tion of com­mu­ni­ties and local fem­i­nist move­ments. Third-party financiers must not place con­di­tions on grantees such as pledges against other human rights.” (para­graph 93)

• “The Spe­cial Rap­por­teur recalls that State par­ties’ imme­di­ate oblig­a­tions include guar­an­tees of non-dis­crim­i­na­tion and equal treat­ment and the oblig­a­tion to take delib­er­ate, such tar­geted steps towards the full real­iza­tion of the right to health as the prepa­ra­tion of a national pub­lic health strat­egy and plan of action. Pro­gres­sive real­iza­tion means that States have a spe­cific and con­tin­u­ing oblig­a­tion to move as expe­di­tiously as pos­si­ble towards the full real­iza­tion of the right to health.” (para­graph 94)

2021 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to health

• “The Spe­cial Rap­por­teur views the prac­tice of med­i­cine as in itself a tool for the pro­mo­tion of human rights and thus health-care work­ers are key to chang­ing the patri­ar­chal and pater­nal­is­tic sys­tems of med­ical prac­tice.” (para­graph 80)

• “The Spe­cial Rap­por­teur rec­om­mends that States respect and pro­tect key prin­ci­ples of non-dis­crim­i­na­tion, equal­ity and pri­vacy, as well as the integrity, auton­omy, dig­nity and well-being of indi­vid­u­als, espe­cially in rela­tion to sex­ual and repro­duc­tive health rights.” (para­graph 90)

2019 OHCHR Annual report on human rights and HIV

• “States should remove struc­tural bar­ri­ers, includ­ing dis­crim­i­na­tory laws and poli­cies, and apply human rights-based approaches to the response to HIV, putting peo­ple liv­ing with HIV at the cen­tre of their poli­cies, pro­grammes and prac­tices. In order not to leave any­one behind, States should increase their efforts to reach the most mar­gin­al­ized women and ado­les­cents, key pop­u­la­tions vul­ner­a­ble to HIV, includ­ing gay men and other men who have sex with men, sex work­ers, peo­ple who use drugs, trans­gen­der peo­ple, and per­sons in pris­ons and other closed set­tings. Com­mu­ni­ties should be involved in the design, imple­men­ta­tion and deliv­ery of poli­cies, pro­grammes and prac­tices.” (para­graph 47(a))

• “States should review their laws in accor­dance with inter­na­tional human rights law. In order to improve the human rights aspect in the response to HIV, States and their par­lia­ments could col­lab­o­rate at the regional and sub­re­gional lev­els to develop human rights-based nor­ma­tive con­tent to inspire the domes­ti­ca­tion of laws at the national level. In order to reach Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goal tar­get 3.3 and to leave no one behind, States should adopt leg­is­la­tion, poli­cies and prac­tices that decrim­i­nal­ize sex work, drug use, same-sex rela­tions, and gen­der iden­tity and expres­sion, and pro­vide access to gen­der recog­ni­tion.” (para­graph 47(b))

• “National human rights insti­tu­tions and civil soci­ety have an impor­tant role to play in strength­en­ing human rights account­abil­ity. The shrink­ing space for civil soci­ety is a key dri­ver in leav­ing behind peo­ple liv­ing with HIV, par­tic­u­larly key pop­u­la­tions. States should respect, pro­tect and pro­mote civil soci­ety space, pro­vide an enabling reg­u­la­tory and fund­ing envi­ron­ment that allows civil soci­ety to work at the national, regional and sub­re­gional lev­els, and repeal laws that cre­ate bar­ri­ers to the activ­i­ties of civil soci­ety bod­ies. Civil soci­ety should be empow­ered to col­lect data, address human rights vio­la­tions, par­tic­i­pate in pol­i­cy­mak­ing and deci­sion-mak­ing, imple­men­ta­tion and mon­i­tor­ing, includ­ing on issues relat­ing to HIV and the rights of peo­ple liv­ing with HIV. In order to improve its effec­tive­ness, civil soci­ety could coop­er­ate at the regional level on joint advo­cacy efforts, includ­ing with regional mech­a­nisms.” (para­graph 47(b))

• “States should ensure that uni­ver­sal health cov­er­age pro­motes both the health and rights of all per­sons, includ­ing the most mar­gin­al­ized, such as peo­ple liv­ing with HIV and key pop­u­la­tions, and addresses human rights bar­ri­ers to health. States should ensure that human rights, includ­ing the right to health of per­sons liv­ing with HIV, are inte­grated into dis­cus­sions on uni­ver­sal health cov­er­age, includ­ing in the lead-up to the high-level meet­ing of the Gen­eral Assem­bly on uni­ver­sal health cov­er­age and in its out­come doc­u­ment.” (para­graph 47(h))

2016 General Comment No.22 on the Right to Sexual and Reproductive Health

• “The right to sex­ual and repro­duc­tive health is also indi­vis­i­ble from and inter­de­pen­dent with other human rights. It is inti­mately linked to civil and polit­i­cal rights under­pin­ning the phys­i­cal and men­tal integrity of indi­vid­u­als and their auton­omy, such as the rights to life; lib­erty and secu­rity of per­son; free­dom from tor­ture and other cruel, inhu­man or degrad­ing treat­ment; pri­vacy and respect for fam­ily life; and non-dis­crim­i­na­tion and equal­ity. For exam­ple, lack of emer­gency obstet­ric care ser­vices or denial of abor­tion often leads to mater­nal mor­tal­ity and mor­bid­ity, which in turn con­sti­tutes a vio­la­tion of the right to life or secu­rity, and in cer­tain cir­cum­stances can amount to tor­ture or cruel, inhu­man or degrad­ing treat­ment.” (para­graph 10)

2011 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to health

• “The Spe­cial Rap­por­teur rec­om­mends that efforts be made to improve tools to mea­sure the impact of human rights-based approaches to devel­op­ment inter­ven­tions with the sup­port of rel­e­vant inter­na­tional bod­ies such as UNDP and OHCHR, tak­ing into account that to achieve real­iza­tion of rights is an end in itself.” (para­graph 60(f))

• “The Spe­cial Rap­por­teur rec­om­mends that mea­sures be taken to ensure that human rights pri­or­i­ties and goals are not neglected as a con­se­quence of an over­re­liance on eas­ily quan­tifi­able data in the eval­u­a­tion of devel­op­ment inter­ven­tions.” (para­graph 60(g))

Evidence

2015 UNAIDS Terminology Guidelines

• “A human rights-based approach is a con­cep­tual frame­work for the HIV response that is grounded in inter­na­tional human rights norms and prin­ci­ples, both in terms of process (e.g. right to par­tic­i­pa­tion, equal­ity and account­abil­ity) and out­come (e.g. rights to health, life and sci­en­tific progress). HRBA addresses dis­crim­i­na­tory prac­tices and unjust dis­tri­b­u­tions of power that impede progress in the HIV response by strength­en­ing the capac­i­ties of rights-hold­ers to claim their rights and the abil­ity of duty-bear­ers to meet their oblig­a­tions.” (p. 28)