In Thailand, UNAIDS is working with civil society networks to monitor and report cases of violence and other human rights violations among key populations and people living with HIV during the coronavirus pandemic.
Using an online tool, community members can report to a “crisis response team” human rights abuses and other forms of discrimination including physical violence, disclosure of HIV status or being tested for HIV without consent, and discrimination at the workplace and at school. The team consists of a multi-disciplinary group of people such as community health workers, health care providers, social workers, lawyers and police officers that can provide immediate assistance including social and health support, mediation with management level at the workplace or education institutes as well as arranging for volunteer lawyers to support victims in court.
At the end of April 2020, 122 case were reported to the CRS team, a significant increase since the implementation of the lockdown measure in the country.
This initiative is based on an already existing community-led crisis monitoring and response group supported by UNAIDS to monitor human rights abuses in the response to HIV in partnership with MOPH and Foundation on AIDS rights (FAR). It also serves as a good example on how HIV related interventions can be applied to the response to COVID-19.
