Rights, Gender, Prevention & Community Mobilization Department

From 1 to 30 September, a series of UNAIDS posters is on exhibit in Geneva along the Lac Leman. The posters dispel many of the mistruths about HIV and AIDS.  While many people think they may be well-informed about the virus, in reality many misconceptions continue to circulate. Forty years after the first cases of HIV were identified, misinformation, stigma and discrimination still persist. Worse still, the information gap is widening, particularly among young people who are often most…

UNAIDS celebrates the groundbreaking decision by the High Court of Justice in Saint Lucia declaring sections 132 and 133 of the Criminal Code unconstitutional for criminalizing consensual adult sexual acts in private. This triumph upholds LGBTQ+ people’s rights to protection of the law, privacy, non-discrimination, freedom of expression, and equal protection under the law, as guaranteed by the Constitution.

Lenacapavir–a long-acting, six-monthly injectable antiretroviral medicine manufactured by Gilead Sciences–is now recommended by the World Health Organization as an additional HIV prevention choice as part of combination HIV prevention approaches. 

Borey and Sophia are among the first clients in Cambodia to begin long-acting injectable Cabotegravir (CAB-LA), a PrEP formulation administered every two months. With this initiative, Cambodia has become a frontrunner in the Asia Pacific region to roll out long-acting PrEP.

Located in Lusaka, Sanity House is a rehabilitation and harm reduction centre offering a safe space for people who use drugs. Through medical, psychosocial, and vocational services, the centre builds a family-like community that helps clients heal and re-enter society with dignity and purpose. Many of the staff, including Daniel Mbazima, House Manager, are in recovery themselves and serve as mentors and role models.

Noncedo Khumalo grew up in a country with one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world, Eswatini—a country landlocked between South Africa and Mozambique.  The 24-year-old has overcome her fair share of difficult times to make ends meet. The recent US funding cuts have now put her future in question.     

The survey also warns about the abrupt policy changes occurring as a consequence, including the integration of HIV-specific clinics into general health systems, and the surge of restrictive laws targeting organizations working on gender, diversity, and sexual and reproductive health and rights, using the term “foreign agent” to criminalize their work. These changes are causing the collapse of service delivery models and increased barriers to youth-led organizations, further reducing…

The global response to HIV has reached a crucial juncture. Groundbreaking scientific advances, including the development of long-acting HIV prevention technologies like lenacapavir and cabotegravir, offer a transformative opportunity to curb the epidemic.

In the heart of Chișinău, Moldova, medical students, healthcare workers, civil society members, and representatives of the international community took a symbolic step toward a more inclusive, respectful, and stigma-free health system. 

Chhum Vy, an outreach worker for Men’s Health Cambodia (MHC), lives in Steung Meanchey, a low-income neighborhood in southern Phnom Penh. She has converted her rental house into a makeshift community centre for gay and transgender people who live in the area. To get there you pass through a Buddhist temple compound, then head down narrow streets, just wide enough for a motorbike.