Cultural practices

UNAIDS fully backs calls made today by an eminent group of United Nations experts that Ghana should reject a proposed “family values bill” that targets the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community.

After analyzing the draft legislation, the independent experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council concluded that adopting the legislation in its current or any partial form would be tantamount to a violation of a number of human rights standards, including the absolute prohibition of torture.

The experts said that the proposed law seeks to establish a system of State-sponsored discrimination and violence against the LGBTI community.

UNAIDS has already called for the law to be rejected as a gross violation of human rights. It has also warned that the legislation would be a grave setback for the HIV response in driving vulnerable people further away from essential HIV treatment, care and prevention services.

Ghana: Anti-LGBTI draft bill a “recipe for violence” – UN experts 

GENEVA, 12 August 2021 — UN human rights experts* urged Ghana’s Government to reject a proposed ‘family values’ bill, saying it seeks to establish a system of State-sponsored discrimination and violence against the LGBTI community. The first reading of the bill took place on 2 August 2021, and its consideration is expected to resume in October 2021.  

“The draft legislation argues that any person who deviates from an arbitrary standard of sexual orientation or gender identity is immediately to be considered dangerous, sick or anti-social,” said the experts. “Such laws are a textbook example of discrimination. 

“The proposed law promotes deeply harmful practices that amount to ill-treatment and are conducive to torture, such as so-called ‘conversion therapy’ and other heinous violations like unecessary medical procedures on intersex children, and so-called corrective rape for women,” they added. 

The independent experts, appointed by the Human Rights Council, presented an analysis of the draft bill to the Ghanaian Government, concluding that adopting the legislation in its current or any partial form would be tantamount to a violation of a number of human rights standards, including the absolute prohibition of torture.

For example, attempts to prevent human rights defenders from organising themselves to defend LGBTI people, and the absolute prohibition of public debate on sexual orientation and gender identity, raises grave concerns about rights to freedom of opinion and expression, and of association. Moreover, the bill in question would essentially legitimize the above instances of violence against LBTI women and reinforce existing gender stereotypes and discrimination against women, which are both cause and consequence of violence against women and girls.

“The consideration of this legislation is deeply perplexing in a country that has been regarded as a champion of democracy in Africa, with an impressive record of achieving certain Millennium Development Goals by 2015,” they said. They cited specific concerns about the MDG goals on health, education, employment, housing and gender justice. 

“The draft legislation appears to be the result of a deep loathing toward the LGBTI community. It will not only criminalise LGBTI people, but anyone who supports their human rights, shows sympathy to them or is even remotely associated with them.

“Given that LGBTI people are present in every family and every community it is not very difficult to imagine how, if it were to be adopted, this legislation could create a recipe for conflict and violence.” 

ENDS

*The experts: Victor Madrigal-Borloz, Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences; Koumbou Boly Barry, Special Rapporteur on the right to education; Irene Khan; Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of expression; Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Nils Melzer, Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; Elina Steinerte (Chair-Rapporteur), Miriam Estrada-Castillo (Vice-chairperson), Leigh Toomey, Mumba Malila, Priya Gopalan, Working Group on arbitrary detention Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association

The Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and Working Groups are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council's independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures' experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

UN Human Rights, country page: Ghana

For more information and media requests please contact Catherine de Preux De Baets (+41 22 917 93 27/ cdepreuxdebaets@ohchr.org) or write to ie-sogi@ohchr.org

For media enquiries regarding other UN independent experts, please contact Renato de Souza (+41 22 928 9855 / rrosariodesouza@ohchr.org).

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The International AIDS Candlelight Memorial, coordinated by the Global Network of People Living with HIV, is one of the world’s oldest and largest grassroots mobilization campaigns for HIV awareness in the world. In May, the UNAIDS country office in China invited members of community-based organizations to lead a commemorative event to mark the 36th International AIDS Candlelight Memorial at the United Nations headquarters in Beijing.       

Organized by the Man Wellness Center and Beijing Love Without Border Foundation under the theme of "Ignite Hope, Blessing for Love,” the event brought together community members, activists, young people, healthcare providers, private sector representatives and other people working in the response. They remembered those lost to AIDS-related illnesses and re-committed their efforts to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030.  

During the ceremony, the director of UNESCO’s Beijing office, Ms. Marielza Oliveira, welcomed the significant advances made in the response to AIDS, emphasizing the medical and scientific advances that could now be used to reduce the impact of the epidemic. She called on people to join together to reduce the stigma and discrimination associated with the virus to ensure that everybody could share in the progress being made.

Participants at the event received the latest material about HIV treatment and prevention options.

Civil society activists in China are working hard to get the message across that as long as people living with HIV take treatment regularly and are virally suppressed, they are not infectious: Undetectable = Untransmittable.        

Young people were prominent at the event. Volunteers from the Core Group for AIDS Prevention and the Red Cross Society of China’s Beijing branch attended and committed themselves to creating a discrimination-free environment for people living with and affected by HIV.

As dusk fell, people lit candles in memory of those that have been lost to AIDS-related illnesses.

At the end of the ceremony, people came together to place their candles on a commemorative red ribbon.

The event once again demonstrated the central role played by communities in the response to the AIDS epidemic.

An infectious disease can spread around the world in days. Human factors that have quickened the pace of virus transmission include the growing global population, urbanization and the industrialization of food production. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in the United States of America features nine diseases that have spilled over from animals to humans in its newly opened exhibition, Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World.

One hundred years after the influenza pandemic, the three-year-long exhibition sheds a light on the causes of disease outbreaks such as Nipah virus and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the various responses to epidemics.

“The 2014 Ebola outbreak in western Africa was the catalyst, but we wanted to have HIV—the pandemic of our time—as a big focus of the exhibition,” said Sabrina Sholts, the lead curator. For HIV, the museum created a three-dimensional timeline showing the landmarks of the AIDS response in the United States, from the activism to the science to the policy changes and treatment. Objects such as red ribbon pins, ACT UP T-shirts with a pink triangle with the saying Silence=Death, condoms, antiretroviral medicine bottles and photos guide visitors from the start of the HIV epidemic until now. A large touch table allows for people to explore new infections around the world today based on the latest UNAIDS data.

“We didn’t want to leave the impression that AIDS is over and limited to one place, so the interactive component resonates with people as to where we stand right now,” said Ms Sholts.

The UNAIDS Strategic Information Department worked with Ms Sholts’ team and provided specific epidemiological data. Timely and accurate data on diseases are the clues to trends in an epidemic. Displaying and using those data are critical pieces of our work,” senior UNAIDS epidemiologist Mary Mahy said.

Ms Sholts admits that making the data visually engaging was a challenge, but by simplifying the language and adding context, the digital interactive centerpiece works well.

The curator’s aim was to have visitors understand the varying difficulties of getting people to know their HIV status and ultimately the long-term benefits that that entails.

“Diseases are scary stuff, so for every dire challenge or obstacle, we created an “on the upside” component to highlight a success story or uplifting angle,” she said. For the HIV pandemic, the upsides focus on various organizations serving people in need, like the Ponce de Leon Center in Georgia, United States.

She explained that the main goal of Outbreak is to raise public awareness about pandemic risks with the perspective that human, animal and environmental health are all connected as one.

The exhibition also showcases a mock-up of an Ebola treatment ward and a game, played on touch screens, that has visitors simulate a variety of roles—epidemiologist, wildlife biologist or community worker—to complete tasks as a team to end an outbreak.

Part of Outbreak focuses on the detective work involved in tracking down and containing diseases. Future viruses are inevitable, which is why understanding human influence on their emergence and development is key. 

Touching wild animals, a lack of vaccination, unprotected sex and travelling when sick all contribute to a virus’ proliferation, linking distant and diverse populations to each other beyond their communities, countries and continents. The response to these diseases, therefore, must also involve everyone.

“We are all connected, we all matter and we have to think holistically, collaboratively and collectively,” Ms Sholts said.

For those not travelling to Washington, DC, the Smithsonian has a free pared-down version of the exhibition—including the UNAIDS interactive display—available for translation and customization worldwide.

Child marriage is widespread across much of Latin America and the Caribbean, accounting for around 23% of marriages in the region, despite laws against it.

The impact of child marriage and early unions (where one of the members is aged below 18 years of age) on girls and their societies can be devastating. Evidence shows that there is a strong link between child marriage and early unions with child pregnancy, maternal and infant mortality, lower education levels for girls and lower ranking on the human development index. And child marriage and early unions make girls more vulnerable to contracting sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.

At a high-level side event co-hosted by the Permanent Missions of Panama and Guatemala to the United Nations in collaboration with UN Women, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and UNAIDS, lessons learned and programmatic and policy options to address child marriage in Latin America and the Caribbean were presented.

In the event, which took place on 17 March at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, United States of America, during the sixty-first session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the participants recognized that child marriage and early unions are a violation of human rights and are a grave threat to the lives, health and future development of girls.

The event focused on the importance of supporting legislative reforms to raise the legal age of marriage to 18 and promoting programmes to empower girls and young women.

The event identified successful approaches and strategies for reducing the rates of child marriage. For example, Panama—where an estimated 26% of girls are married before the age of 18 and approximately 7% before the age of 15—has reformed its national legislation on the legal age of marriage. The minimum legal age for marriage in Panama is now 18 years, as is the age of consent. Previously, with parental permission girls aged as young as 14 years and boys aged 16 years could marry. In Guatemala, thanks to advocacy actions led by UN Women, civil society and international cooperation, reforms to the civil and penal codes have been approved to increase the minimum age for marriage to 18 years.

Since 2015, UNAIDS has partnered with UN Women, UNICEF, UNFPA and PAHO/World Health Organization in a joint initiative on eliminating child marriage and early unions that supports government actions to ensure that, throughout their life cycle, the multiple needs of girls and women are recognized and guaranteed.

UNAIDS is working with countries to eliminate gender inequalities and all form of violence and discrimination against women and girls by 2020, as outlined in the 2016 United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS.

If the Fast-Track approach to end the AIDS epidemic is to be successful, the rights, roles and responsibilities of men in the AIDS response need to be placed firmly on the global agenda.

It has long been noted that the Fast-Track Strategy cannot be achieved without action on gender equality and human rights. The vulnerability of young women and girls has been an important focus of many programmes and has been debated many times, but more recognition is needed that harmful norms also drive the epidemic among men. Health systems are falling short of addressing the needs of men, which is having a negative impact on the health of both men and women.

“Men play a critical role. When we engage men for their own health and to change harmful gender norms, we improve both men’s and women’s health. This is an essential element of the UNAIDS Fast-Track approach to ending the AIDS epidemic,” said Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director.

Reaching men with HIV-related prevention, treatment, care and support services is vital. Men and adolescent boys make up nearly 49% of the global population of 34.3 million adults living with HIV and account for 52% of all new adult HIV infections. Around 60% of the 1.2 million people who died of AIDS-related illness in 2014 were male.

According to UNAIDS, there is a lack of services for men who are at higher risk of HIV infection. Diversity among men, including age, risk behaviour and sexual orientation, needs to be taken into account when planning programmes.

Women under the age of 25 are often vulnerable to HIV, and gender inequality and the structures of society often prevent them from accessing the HIV information and services that can protect them. Men, on the other hand, are affected later in life and are more empowered to access services, but, for many reasons, they don’t.

Men’s access to HIV services is important for their own health but it is also an important way to reduce vulnerability among women. Engaging men in health services for their own health can also provide an entry point for programmes that can also transform harmful gender norms.

UNAIDS calls for more work to be done to explore exactly how harmful gender norms and notions of masculinity may increase men’s vulnerability. For example, stereotypes of male “strength” and invincibility can lead to men not using condoms and avoiding health services, such as HIV testing. It has been shown by research in 12 low- and middle-income countries that men with less equitable attitudes to women are less likely to be tested for HIV.

In addition, studies have reported that men are more likely not to seek out—and stick to—antiretroviral therapy.

UNAIDS contends that health professionals themselves often assume that men do not need, or are not willing to use, HIV-related services. There is a need for such preconceptions to change, with the development of comprehensive policies and programmes that promote men’s access to programmes and address their specific needs. This means changing the perceptions of men in the response to HIV, as they are often referred to as “transmitters” or “vectors”, stereotypes that blame them for infection, stigmatize them and isolate them further from accessing services.

There is a call for a global shift in the discussion on HIV and gender—that it should become more inclusive of men and encourage their greater positive engagement in all aspects of the AIDS response and in advancing gender equality. Sexual and reproductive health is not the responsibility of women alone. Focused, integrated sexual and reproductive health services must be made available to men and adolescent boys. Although much more research needs to be done, there is already a body of data that lays the groundwork for developing and implementing more comprehensive policies and programmes.

To reflect the seriousness of this issue and the need to chart the way forward, a global high-level meeting on men, adolescent boys and AIDS is being held in Geneva on 10 and 11 December. It is co-convened by UNAIDS, Sonke Gender Justice and the International Planned Parenthood Federation. The main objectives are, broadly, to build consensus on what the evidence is saying about men and adolescent boys in the HIV response and what role they have to play in ending the AIDS epidemic.