Advocacy and human rights

Introduction: 

Heterosexual men are not considered a key population in the HIV response and are mostly absent from pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) studies to date. Yet, South African men face considerable HIV risk.

This publication marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

Restrictions in movement, social isolation and increased socioeconomic pressures around the world have led to an increase in violence against women and girls since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to UNAIDS.

The HIV pandemic provides lessons for the response to the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: no vaccine is available for either and there are no licensed pharmaceuticals for COVID-19, just as there was not for HIV infection in the early years.

Selling sex has been illegal in South Africa since at least the early 1900s and buying sex was criminalised in 2007.

According to the Commission for Gender Equality’s latest report on forced and coerced sterilisations in South Africa, the practice is a direct attack on HIV-positive women’s constitutionally enshrined rights, and highlights flaws in public health’s informed consent procedures.

South Africa has spent the last two decades fighting against its deadly HIV and TB epidemics, and many of its HIV researchers are now mustering their expertise to battle the Covid-19 pandemic.The scientific community has “galvanized” to investigate the novel coronavirus and the disease it causes,

Background