Make An Equality Stand

posted: 14/04/2011

People who want to protect the rights of people living with HIV and stand up for Equality should post a comment on the government’s website called the RedTapeChallenge. We have no idea why, but the Cameron government seems to think Equality law and Human Rights are just bureaucratic red tape regulations that should be swept away. They ask people to
 

"Tell us what you think should happen to this Act and why, being specific where possible:
• Should they be scrapped altogether?
• Can they be merged with existing regulations?
• Can we simplify them – or reduce the bureaucracy associated with them?
• Have you got any ideas to make these regulations better?
• Do you think they should be left as they are?"

We encourage people to stand up for HIV, Human Rights and Equality for all. This law provides vital protection for people with HIV among many other groups.

Some excellent responses on the RedTapeChallenge website make the point that the Equality Act is a very recent law (2010) passed by Parliament and not regulations at all.
 

There are also many uninformed and hostile calls for the whole law to be scrapped.

People concerned about equality and HIV need to make their voices heard.

Please – now
Go to the website and write a short note with your views on the Equality Act.

Some points to make

• the Equality Act is primary legislation, not regulations;
• say how wrong it is to pretend this is about regulations when the entire Equality Act 2010 appears to have been put up for grabs;
• ask people to say positive things about the Equality Act – it’s for everyone, whether women or men, whatever people’s race, beliefs or faith, sexuality, age, marriage or civil partnership, disability (which includes HIV and cancer), pregnancy and maternity, or gender reassignment. The Equality Act helps make the country more civilised, people respect our differences and organisations to provide services without discriminating.

Message the link / use Facebook / Twitter and other networks to people to add their voices
 

Making a quick comment only takes a moment

Image

Human Rights Court - HIV discrimination

posted: 18/03/2011

The European Court of Human Rights has just made a helpful and important ruling about HIV discrimination. The court said discrimination against people with HIV is so widespread that it means people with HIV are a “vulnerable group with a history of prejudice and stigmatisation”.

This ruling makes it easier for other people to make HIV discrimination claims on human rights grounds. This means people with HIV will automatically be treated in future human rights cases as 'vulnerable'. This means one less thing to prove when making a human rights claim in UK courts and tribunals.

With cuts to public services for people with HIV, including access to free legal aid, more people with HIV in the UK are likely to need to use the Human Rights Act. This ruling will help.

The European Court case was against Russia. Russia refused a residence permit to a man from Uzbekistan (who is married to a Russian woman with whom he has a child) simply because he is HIV-positive. The Court said this plainly breached their human right to family life. If he hadn’t had HIV he would have been given the residence permit to live with his wife and child in Russia.
 

The court said, "The mere presence of a HIV-positive individual in a country is not in itself a threat to public health."
 

Human Right to Family Life and non-discrimination

Russia was found to have broken Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to family life, and Article 14, which bans discrimination.
 

Last October, the European Human Rights Court ruled against Russia because of Moscow's bans of gay pride events. Then the court found that Russia was breaking the European Convention guarantees of freedom of assembly and association, the right to an effective remedy and prohibition of discrimination.

Source

 
More details on this New York law professor’s blog

European Court of Human Rights

European Parliament Votes for HIV

posted: 09/07/2010

In the run up to the largest and most prestigious International AIDS Conference in Vienna (which begins later this month), HIV campaigners across Europe have won a big a vote in the European Parliament for a human rights based approach to HIV. There is now a list of 25 things that should happen next according to the European Parliament’s resolution.
The vote was 400 for and 166 against.
 

After a list of reasons, on page four the 25 actions that the European Parliament and its institutions should now take begins.  It's a shopping list of actions to do the best that is possible to deal with the HIV epidemic for people within Europe and the rest of the world. 

What they voted for

It calls for a human rights approach to dealing with HIV and lists a whole range of things to make this happen - such as decriminalising HIV transmission, and providing healthcare to all, because this is now part of the universal declaration of human rights.

Here is the full Resolution which has just been voted through
You can find the whole debate here – video and printed versions
 

HIV, Human and Sexual Health Rights

posted: 15/04/2010

A groundbreaking guide Advancing the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Human Rights of People Living with HIV has been produced by UNAIDS. Now, policy makers, programme managers, health professionals, donors and advocates have an important tool to better support the sexual and reproductive health and rights of people living with HIV.
 

Networks of people with HIV worldwide contributed to this guide, which explains what people involved in advocacy, health systems, policy making and law can do to support and advance the sexual and reproductive health of people living with HIV, and why these issues matter.

12 recommendations

1. HIV testing should never be mandatory and always be based on the ‘three Cs’: confidential, based on informed consent, and conducted with counselling. This applies equally to marginalised groups, including sex workers, injecting drug users, prisoners, migrants, refugees, and members of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender and intersex communities.
2. Systems for HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support must be strengthened to deal with increased demand at the same time that HIV testing is scaled up, to ensure that HIV testing results in referral to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support programmes. In particular, pregnant women should not be tested only to prevent transmission from parent to child; they must also be offered prevention, treatment and care services.
3. National laws should be reformed and enforced to ensure that:
   ¤    Laws explicitly ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and HIV status;    ¤    Anal sex, sex work, same-sex relationships, and transgender relationships are decriminalized;    ¤    Disclosure of HIV status is not required by law if a person is practicing safer sex, their HIV status is oherwise known, or there is a well founded fear of harm by the other person;    ¤    HIV transmission is not considered a crime except for rare cases where there is evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that one person deliberately tried to infect another and indeed did so;    ¤    HIV status alone does not affect a person’s right to marry or found a family, is not grounds for divorce, and is not relevant in child custody decisions;    ¤    Young people have the right to confidentiality and do not need parental permission for age-appropriate information and sexual and reproductive health care, even if they are below the age of majority;    ¤    Women’s property rights are ensured and protected, particularly following divorce, abandonment or a spouse’s death;    ¤    Sexual violence, including incest, forced or early marriage, sexual assault or rape (including in the context of sex work or in marriage) is recognised and prosecuted as a crime;    ¤    Injecting drug users are provided with treatment, including opioid substitution therapy, and harm reduction programmes as an alternative to incarceration; and    ¤    Transgender people are legally recognised and clear procedures are in place for changing name and sex on official documents.
4. All people living with HIV – including members of marginalised groups, such as sex workers, injecting drug users, prisoners, migrants, refugees, and members of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities – should have access to a full range of sexual and reproductive health services, including:
   ¤    All available contraceptive options and help with dual protection, without coercion toward any method;   ¤    Counselling and support for positive prevention and voluntary disclosure   ¤     Access to safe abortion (where legal) and post-abortion care;    ¤    Counselling and support for safe ways to become pregnant;    ¤    Counselling and practical support for infant feeding, whether breastfeeding or replacement feeding;    ¤    Diagnosis and treatment of STIs;    ¤    Cancer prevention and care;    ¤    Counselling related to violence;    ¤    Sexual dysfunction treatment; and    ¤    Male circumcision for men living with HIV if, when fully informed, they want the procedure.
5. Health workers should receive training in human rights and universal precautions, as well as specific training in sexual and reproductive health care for people living with HIV, including technical skills and stigma reduction. People living with HIV should participate in these programmes as trainers.
6. Health service providers and advocates should support closer linkages between HIV prevention, care, and treatment; comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services; drug substitution therapy; mental health and psychosocial services; and anti-discrimination and antiviolence initiatives.
7. Advocates should ensure that special centres and programmes are developed to deliver information and services to hard-to-reach populations.
8. Governments, international agencies, and NGOs, in collaboration with organizations of young people living with HIV, should develop specific guidelines for counselling, support and care for people born with HIV as they move into adolescence and adulthood.
9. Governments, international agencies, and NGOs should better research and monitor the sexual and reproductive health of people living with HIV, including data disaggregated by gender, age, marital status, geographic location and sexual orientation. This research should be conducted with the input and supervision of people living with HIV.
10. Governments, international agencies, and NGOs should set and monitor concrete targets for involving people living with HIV in all relevant activities, including positive prevention programmes.
11. Governments, international agencies, and NGOs should support income-generating programmes. This includes directly employing people living with HIV, and paying them for their work.
12. Advocates should ensure that programmes to bolster participation of people living with HIV also help build needed skills. In particular, women and young people should be provided with ‘know your rights / laws’ education and advocacy training.
     

• The UNAIDS Guide Advancing the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Human Rights of People Living with HIV  pdf 2.3Mb

Source 

Asylum - Human Rights Ignored

posted: 09/03/2010

A new report for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission lays bare the UK government’s abuse of the human rights of asylum seekers and refugees living here, including many who are living with HIV. People seeking sanctuary in Britain are denied vital healthcare whether they are in detention centres or living in the community, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has found. Hundreds of rape victims, people living with HIV, and traumatised children are missing out on treatment and basic medical help.
 

Institutional failures

The report, from the University of Kent, warns "There is evidence of an institutional failure to address health concerns about asylum seekers in detention. More specifically there are concerns about children's health, mental health, treatment for those with HIV and access to female GPs, especially for women who have suffered rape and sexual violence."
 

Asylum and medical charity workers said the findings confirmed the experience of hundreds of refugees. A spokeswoman for Medical Justice said: "Sadly and unsurprisingly, findings of these failures accord with what our volunteer doctors have been seeing on the hundreds of occasions they have visited immigration detainees and seen their medical notes."
 

Time for action

This EHRC report sets out problems of poor treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. There are some serious failings. We’ll be checking to see what action the Commission now takes to end the government’s mistreatment and denial of people’s human rights.

HIV, health and social care
Inadequate HIV healthcare is one of the points highlighted in the healthcare section of the report. There are specific concerns around vulnerable groups. For women asylum seekers and refugees there is evidence of poor antenatal care and pregnancy outcomes. There is little evidence of the commissioning of services for disabled asylum seekers (such as everyone with HIV) and no clear guidance exists on local authority responsibilities towards asylum seekers with care needs. Mental health problems including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety are prevalent among asylum seekers and refugees, and the provision of mental health services for survivors of torture and organised violence is widely regarded as inadequate.
 

The vulnerability and ill health of asylum-seeking and refugee children is an area of particular concern, as are the health needs of older refugees. There are also concerns around the provision of healthcare to asylum seekers in detention with communicable diseases and with HIV/AIDS.
 

Poverty, destitution and access to accommodation and financial support
Asylum seekers are vulnerable to poverty and destitution (defined as not having adequate accommodation or support for themselves and their dependants for the next 14 days) as a result of a number of factors. These include: the circumstances in which they and their dependants arrive in the UK (often without money or accommodation), the complexity of the rules for entitlement to financial and other support for asylum seekers and those refused asylum, the occurrence of administrative and casework errors, and the fact that the vast majority of asylum seekers do not have permission to work.

Evidence indicates that refused asylum seekers are the most disadvantaged group and evidence of destitution appears to run counter to Section 11 of Chapter 42 of the Human Rights Act 1988 and Council Directive 2003/9/EC.
 

Care needs gaps
Asylum seekers with care needs are particularly vulnerable to poverty and to falling through the gaps between Home Office and social services support. Other vulnerable groups include single women and those with children.
 

There are concerns about the specific requirements that asylum seekers must meet when lodging a claim in order to be eligible for support. The incompatibility of the Section 55 and 9 provisions with Articles 3 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) remains a key concern, as do the conditions that asylum seekers must comply with in order to receive Section 4 support. Complex issues surround the provision of support for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, and there are doubts as to whether the UK’s responsibilities under domestic legislation and international human rights principles are being fulfilled.
 

Key issues for action now by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission
There is an ongoing tension between policies relating to immigration control and those concerned with welfare. This lies at the heart of many of the concerns regarding the equality and human rights of asylum seekers and refugees.

• Processes for removal involving detention and deportation have been the subject of sustained criticism on human rights grounds.
• Living conditions and support received by asylum seekers and refugees in the UK also cause concern. There are general inefficiencies within the system: many people do not know or understand the process, and receive different and conflicting advice from different agencies. On accommodation and support, the impact of the Section 55 and Section 9 provisions has been of considerable concern and, despite various clarifications and revisions by the government, may continue to have an adverse impact on asylum seekers. The quality of housing remains problematic and in some instances appears to conflict with the respect for family and home required by Article 8 of the ECHR.
• There is evidence of problems of access to healthcare. There is a serious lack of clarity with respect to the healthcare entitlements of asylum seekers and this feeds into confusion at ground level.
• Policies and practices within the asylum system covering the seven equality areas, as well as the treatment of vulnerable groups, also cause concern. The provisions put in place by UKBA in order to meet its legal requirements to take gender, race and disability into account have been criticised, and there is clearly a need for more rigorous and widespread equality impact assessments of the various aspects of the asylum system. Furthermore, less consideration is given to those equality areas not subject to the current equality duties. Ideally, the introduction of a new single equality duty covering all seven strands should help to initiate consideration of the issues affecting gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans asylum seekers, as well as those of different ages and with different religion or beliefs.

EHRC report (pdf) - Refugees and asylum seekers : a review from an equality and human rights perspective

Source 
Equality and Human Rights Commission