Health and human rights
-
Although India is a signatory to numerous international agreements on the rights of women and has a constitution that prohibits discrimination and exploitation by gender, as well as a plethora of related legislation, it has failed to satisfactorily protect the human rights of women, particularly those of sex workers. This is manifested in high levels of violence in the sex industry, child sex workers, lack of access to health care, and high levels of HIV infection. Policies that revolve around rescue and rehabilitation, or are based on the premise that sex work is immoral, are unlikely to effectively promote the well-being of sex workers. An alternative paradigm, which revolves around an explicit recognition of the human rights of sex workers together with an activist approach to achieve them, involving a collaboration between NGOs and collectives of sex workers, has worked well to protect the human rights and health of sex workers in India.
-
Health and human rights · Jan 1998
Human rights approaches to an expanded response to address women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.
Research from around the world has revealed how gender-related sociocultural norms and economic realities contribute to women's vulnerability to HIV infection, and how gender-related discrimination contributes to their vulnerability to the impact of AIDS. As the global response to the epidemic enters its second decade, the need for an expanded response to address the societal determinants of women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS is widely accepted. ⋯ This paper analyzes the research on gender and vulnerability, including five key policy and programmatic responses that have emerged from the research, through the lens of human rights. Each recommendation will be presented in terms of the promotion and protection of enumerated rights under four human rights treaties, the realization of which can support the objectives of an expanded response to reduce women's vulnerability to HIV and the impact of AIDS.