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PREVENTIVE
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HIV / AIDS, STIGMA AND DISCRIMINATION 'Live
and let live' is the slogan of the World AIDS Campaign |
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HIV
/ AIDS, STIGMA AND DISCRIMINATION: HOW DO STIGMA AND DISCRIMINATION MAKE THE EPIDEMIC WORSE ? AIDS is not simply a health problem but also a human rights problem. Fear, lack of information, an incorrect understanding of the illness or taboos surrounding HIV/AIDS all lead to stigmatization and discrimination. These, in turn, undermine those persons infected or affected by HIV/AIDS, by exclusion at work, at school, in health care services, or in their family and community. Stigma and discrimination cause shame and guilt, increasing the suffering of people affected by HIV/AIDS. Fear of discrimination often prevents people from seeking treatment for AIDS or from acknowledging their HIV status publicly. Stigma also imposes pain and agony on the children of parents who have HIV or have died from AIDS. Stigma and discrimination thus hasten the propagation of HIV/AIDS, especially among the young who are more vulnerable than adults. Stigma and discrimination hinder access to information, to services and to help that would allow people to understand the risks, protect themselves, act in their community and country, or accept the illness and the infected people around them. The rights of people living with HIV/AIDS and their families are violated simply because they are known to have (or are believed to have) HIV/AIDS. This impedes the response and increases the damage of the epidemic. HIV/AIDS-related stigma aggravates existing prejudices. It also worsens social inequalities, intolerance and exclusion, related especially to poverty, gender, sexuality and race. WHAT IS THE CAMPAIGN DOING ? The World AIDS Campaign's focus in 2002-2003 on stigmatization and discrimination is to encourage people to break the silence, to remove the social barriers, to open the path to effective HIV/AIDS prevention and to encourage better care. The Campaign is promoting a clear understanding of the origins of stigma and discrimination, how they spread and, particularly, the social and cultural factors that fuel them. Stigma
and discrimination feed on existing inequalities, power structures,
cultural traditions, religious beliefs, xenophobia, racism, gender relations
and economic deprivation. To combat this, the Campaign is contributing
to developing comprehensive approaches, improved co-ordination and integrated
responses that efficient action requires-locally, nationally and globally. UNESCO has a special responsibility within the UN system for HIV/AIDS Preventive Education. Its approach to the issue focuses on five tasks: (i) advocacy at all levels, (ii) adapting the message to the context of its targeted audience, (iii) providing culturally appropriate communications for changing risk behaviour and vulnerability, (iv) caring for the infected and affected, and (v) helping countries to cope with the huge institutional impact of the epidemic, which is undermining development. In the context of the World AIDS Campaign for 20022003, UNESCO is playing a lead role in developing effective answers to the problem, by taking more account of the socio-cultural dimensions of HIV/AIDS related stigma and discrimination and by promoting human rights education, particularly among the young. Contact:
HIV/AIDS Co-ordination Unit,
Support
World AIDS Day, 1 December,
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