To mark World AIDS Day 2010, the Commonwealth Foundation hosted the inaugural Commonwealth HIV & Human Rights Lecture in which the Indian former Chief Justice, Ajit Prakash Shah, discussed the ways in which the law can help in the fight against HIV/AIDS
Sixty percent of those living with HIV and AIDS are Commonwealth citizens, and member states are struggling under the pressure of this virulent disease to reduce or even manage infection rates. Oppression and exclusion are universal barriers to the delivery of effective prevention, treatment and care. People living with HIV and AIDS in the Commonwealth are ostracised and they experience violence, eviction, loss of employment and restrictions on their ability to travel.
This stigma is killing people and spreading the infection. It is preventing them from coming forward and has driven the pandemic underground. In most Commonwealth countries, homosexuality remains a criminal offence making vulnerable people harder to reach and leaving them reluctant to come forward. And it means that communicating key messages on prevention and treatment is much more difficult.
The Commonwealth Foundation is committed to bringing civil society voices to policy-making so that their skills, knowledge and practice can be mobilised. We realise that countries can best tackle problems and achieve great progress in averting HIV epidemics when governments and civil society groups work together. In order to address the HIV pandemic the Commonwealth Foundation has supported many such groups through our grant work. Foundation Director Mark Collins has said: “The Commonwealth Foundation is committed to doing all it can to help people access HIV prevention, treatment and care. We are unable to directly intervene but more countries need to follow the example of India in decriminalising homosexuality, and abolish laws that drive HIV and AIDS underground.”
On 30 November, the first World AIDS Day Commonwealth HIV & Human Rights Lecture was given by Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah who, as Delhi High Court Judge in July 2009, overturned a 150-year old British law banning gay sex between consenting adults in India. At the Lecture, hosted by the Commonwealth Foundation and chaired by Cherie Booth QC, Justice Shah discussed the importance of the effect that the legal environment can have on human rights and in combating the spread of HIV and AIDS. Regarding his ground-breaking decision he said: “Indian society is very conservative but from the evidence presented, I could see that without changing the legal framework to help men who have sex with men access good healthcare and HIV prevention services we would not successfully be able to deal with the epidemic in our country.”
Justice Shah also reflected on the opportunities that exist for the Commonwealth to combat and champion these issues.
