The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS urges all parties concerned, including the media, to understand that HIV infection is a condition that requires appropriate treatment and care.

Today, the world marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with a focus on “universality”.

Alarmed by recent reports that people living with HIV have been buried alive in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) express their serious concerns that gross violations of human rights may have been committed against HIV positive people.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) welcomes the ruling by the High Judicial Council of Libya to revoke the death sentence previously imposed on six healthcare workers by the Supreme Court. The Council announced yesterday that it would commute the death sentence for the medical professionals to life imprisonment.

Geneva, 12 July 2007 - The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) expresses serious concern over the verdict delivered by the Libyan Supreme Court to uphold the death sentences imposed on six health care professionals.

UNAIDS is concerned that certain scientific evidence appears to have not been taken into consideration raising serious doubts regarding the conclusion reached by the court.

UNAIDS strongly urges Libya’s High Judiciary Council to review the Supreme Court’s decision when they meet on Monday, taking into consideration all relevant and available scientific evidence related to the case.

The six health care professionals (five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor), imprisoned since 1999, are accused of deliberately infecting 426 children with HIV whilst working at a hospital in Benghazi, Libya. Since 1999, 56 of the children found to be infected with the virus have died.

UNAIDS also expresses its deep concern and empathy for the children affected and for their families, and urges the Libyan Government and international partners to ensure that HIV treatment, care and support are provided to these children and that the human rights of all are respected.

UNAIDS reiterates its support to the Government of Libya for a comprehensive response to prevent the transmission of HIV; to provide for treatment, care and support for those living with HIV; and to protect the rights of those affected by HIV.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) believes that the violence and abuse perpetrated against gay rights activists in the Russian capital on 27 May undermines fundamental human rights, as well as an effective response to AIDS in Russia..

Geneva, 28 March 2007: Statement by the UNAIDS Secretariat to the 4th Session of the Human Rights Council on the importance of the Council’s engagement on HIV and human rights in the push towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

A Phase III study of the candidate

The Joint United Nations Programme

The Joint United Nations Programme