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UNAIDS says the critical issue for ending the AIDS pandemic in the Asia-Pacific region is the need to uphold human rights.
The annual World AIDS Day will be marked on Sunday, 1 December, and the UN agency is calling on leaders to protect the human rights of everyone living with, and at risk of, HIV.
It said that only then can the world meet the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
In Asia and the Pacific, there are 17 AIDS-related deaths every hour and a new HIV infection every two minutes.
From 2010 to 2023, infections in Fiji rose 241 percent and in Papua New Guinea by 104 percent.
Fiji's Ministry of Health and Medical Services said it recorded 552 new cases of HIV from for the first six months of the year - a 33 percent increase compared to 2023.
The Ministry warned that while sexual transmission is known to be the primary means of transmitting for HIV in the coutnry, cases where the disease is transmitted through injectable drug use - linked to the hard drug crisis - is also on the rise.
Criminalizing people for who they are undermines efforts to #endAIDS.
— United Nations Geneva (@UNGeneva) November 28, 2024
Punitive laws push people away from seeking care
We join @UNAIDS in urging States to repeal laws that criminalise key populations and instead enact policies that protect human rights.#WorldAIDSDay2024 pic.twitter.com/UGpg5CAdyQ
According to the UN, 630,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses, and 1.3 million people acquired HIV last year.
A [https://rightspath.unaids.org/?utm_content=buffer59a63&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer new UNAIDS report released this week, notes that despite huge progress made in the HIV response, human rights violations are leading to the denial or limitation of access to HIV services.
"When there is impunity for gender-based violence, when people can be arrested for who they are, when a visit to health services is dangerous for people because of the community they are from- the result is that people are blocked from HIV services that are essential to save their lives and to end the AIDS pandemic," UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima said.
"To protect everyone's health, we need to protect everyone's rights," she said.
The criminalisation and stigmatisation of marginalised communities continue to block access to life-saving HIV services.
In the 2021, Political Declaration on Ending HIV and AIDS, countries committed to ensure that by 2025 less than ten percent of countries have punitive laws and policies and less than ten percent of people living with HIV (PLHIV) and key populations experience stigma and discrimination.
The key populations are communities at higher risk for HIV, including men who have sex with men, people in prisons and other closed settings, people who use drugs, sex workers and transgender people.
