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Florida Journal of International Law

Ellen M. Walker

Abstract

The pandemic of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) has generated a global human rights crisis. Despite evidence showing that protecting human rights helps prevent the transmission of HIV and reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS, fundamental rights continue to be violated. There is a two-way causal relationship between HIV/AIDS and states’ related human rights violations, complicated by the need for international cooperation. While many would agree that HIV/AIDS adversely impacts rights, there lacks a common understanding of how states must apply existing international human rights protections vis-à-vis HIV/AIDS. The international community is insufficiently aware of the many rights currently being violated, the cumulative effect of these violations, and how, together, they truly constitute a global human rights crisis that will likely exist for some time.

This Article tries to draw attention to some of these major issues and challenges and suggests ways that international human rights law can be used to help. In Part II, the author provides an introduction to the HIV/AIDS crisis. To understand the human rights crisis, one must first understand some basic concepts of the pandemic. It is submitted that, in order adequately to protect human rights, human rights lawyers and policymakers should adopt a broader, interdisciplinary approach to understanding vulnerability and access to relevant resources. In Part III, the author sketches some key international developments providing necessary context for understanding HIV/AIDS and human rights today. These developments all recognize the need to protect human rights in light of HIV/AIDS. In addition, in Part III, it is submitted that states’ existing human rights obligations, concerning a range of rights, constitute proper grounds for compulsory licensing of pharmaceutical patents. In Part IV, the author suggests a conceptual approach to the human rights crisis. Unfortunately, this crisis will likely exist for many years to come; thus, the model proposed here is meant to offer human rights lawyers a point of departure for grasping the crisis, their role in it, and the need for a greater immediate response to document violations and to protect human rights. In addition, this approach indicates a wider range of possible human rights responses than those undertaken to date. In Part V, the author applies this framework to examine the international protection of a few impacted human rights vis-à-vis HIV/AIDS under the major human rights treaties.

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