How does a ‘human rights based approach’ work out on the ground? Lessons from South Africa
(aidsmap.com) - While international rhetoric on HIV and AIDS frequently invokes human rights, putting these ideas into practice in specific settings remains challenging, according to a process evaluation of an intervention in rural South Africa published in the October issue of Culture, Health and Sexuality.
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Although female health volunteers understood gender inequalities to be a key obstacle to an effective local response to HIV, they had little interest in abstract notions of women’s rights or in directly confronting men. Their efforts to have their work socially recognised or materially rewarded in the local community were frustrated. Project funders prioritised ‘numbers reached’ over longer-term objectives. Scientists, policy makers and activists frequently emphasise that protecting and promoting human rights is a prerequisite to a successful response to HIV. For example, “Rights here, right now” was the slogan for a recent International AIDS Conference. Appeals to human rights were key to the Treatment Action Campaign’s successful movement to improve access to antiretroviral therapy and are central to discourse on ‘key populations’ (men who have sex with men, sex workers, etc.). Content: |