GENEVA, 14 December 2020—UNAIDS congratulates Bhutan’s parliament on voting to repeal Sections 213 and 214 of the country’s Penal Code. Those provisions criminalized certain private sexual acts and led to discrimination against and the marginalization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. The country’s parliament voted for the repeal on Human Rights Day, 10 December.

“I commend Bhutan’s parliamentarians for voting to create a more compassionate, tolerant and inclusive society and for recognizing that the country’s LGBT people deserve privacy, respect and dignity,” said Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director. “This step taken on Human Rights Day will also help to ensure that LGBT people in Bhutan receive the essential services they need, including HIV treatment, prevention and care services.”    

Bhutan becomes the latest country to decriminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations. Since 2014, Angola, Botswana, Gabon, India, Mozambique, Nauru, Palau, the Seychelles and Trinidad and Tobago have all taken the same measure. However, consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in at least 68 countries and territories worldwide.    

Criminalization of consensual same-sex sexual relations prevents people from accessing and using HIV prevention, testing and treatment services and increases their risk of acquiring HIV. It legitimizes stigma, discrimination and violence against LGBT people and is a human rights violation.  

Globally, the risk of acquiring HIV is 26 times higher among gay men and other men who have sex with men than among the general population and 13 times higher for transgender people. Prohibitive legal and policy environments and a lack of tailored services for key populations increase their vulnerability to HIV. UNAIDS urges countries to ensure the full respect of the human rights of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, through repealing laws that prohibit sex between consenting adults in private, enforcing laws to protect people from violence and discrimination, addressing homophobia and transphobia and ensuring that crucial health services are made available.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

GENEVA, 10 December 2020—UNAIDS announces the launch of its Solidarity Fund, which will support social entrepreneurs and micro-business owned by key populations facing special hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Key populations are among those disproportionally impacted by COVID-19,” said Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director. “COVID-19 has highlighted and exacerbated the profound and widening economic and social inequalities. We must act to support and protect the people who are most impacted by the pandemic.”

Experience from the COVID-19 and HIV pandemics, and from other diseases, such as Ebola, has shown that key populations are more likely to be impacted by food insecurity, face barriers to health care and access to medicines, and suffer losses of livelihood, unemployment, homelessness and domestic violence.

Launched today, Human Rights Day, the new Solidarity Fund will support social entrepreneurs and small-scale businesses owned by people living with HIV, women or members of key populations, including sex workers, transgender people, people who use drugs and gay men and other men who have sex with men, the people who so often have their human rights violated.

“The fund will help bridge the gap between aspirations and opportunities of people from my community. It places trust and gives us a chance to show our innovation and entrepreneurship with no limitations,” said Maite Schneider, the cofounder and Chief Executive Officer of TransEmpregos.

To be piloted initially in five countries—Brazil, Ghana, India, Madagascar and Uganda—with a US$ 250 000 budget from UNAIDS, the initiative will scale up to additional countries over the coming months, with a goal of raising an additional US$ 3 million to US$ 5 million in 2021–2022.

UNAIDS will closely work with community networks, national innovation ecosystems, the private sector and other partners to create tailored support, especially capacity development on social entrepreneurship and mentoring to enhance the sustainability of social ventures and impact for the wider community, with special attention given to young key populations.

Among the partners is the venture development and investment platform Social Alpha, which will provide mentoring and entrepreneur support to the chosen beneficiaries. “We look forward to partner with communities and UNAIDS on the Solidarity Fund and leverage our experience in working with social entrepreneurs for solving complex social, economic and environmental challenges,” said Manoj Kumar, the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Social Alpha.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

In 2019, key populations (including gay men and other men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, sex workers, transgender people and prisoners) and their partners accounted for 62% of all new HIV infections worldwide, including the largest share of new infections in every region other than eastern and southern Africa.

Globally, new HIV infections declined by 23% from 2010 to 2019. The 1.7 million new infections that occurred in 2019 are more than three times higher than the global target of less than 500 000 new infections in 2020.

However, barely a dent has been made in the number of HIV infections among female sex workers, people who inject drugs and transgender women, and HIV infections among gay men and other men who have sex with men increased by an estimated 25% between 2010 and 2019.

As COVID-19 pushes the AIDS response even further off track and the 2020 targets are missed, UNAIDS is urging countries to learn from the lessons of underinvesting in health and to step up global action to end AIDS and other pandemics

GENEVA, 26 November 2020—In a new report, Prevailing against pandemics by putting people at the centre, UNAIDS is calling on countries to make far greater investments in global pandemic responses and adopt a new set of bold, ambitious but achievable HIV targets. If those targets are met, the world will be back on track to ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

The global AIDS response was off track before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, but the rapid spread of the coronavirus has created additional setbacks. Modelling of the pandemic’s long-term impact on the HIV response shows that there could be an estimated 123 000 to 293 000 additional new HIV infections and 69 000 to 148 000 additional AIDS-related deaths between 2020 and 2022.

“The collective failure to invest sufficiently in comprehensive, rights-based, people-centred HIV responses has come at a terrible price,” said Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “Implementing just the most politically palatable programmes will not turn the tide against COVID-19 or end AIDS. To get the global response back on track will require putting people first and tackling the inequalities on which epidemics thrive.”

New targets for getting back on track

Although some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, such as Botswana and Eswatini, have done remarkably well and have achieved or even exceeded the targets set for 2020, many more countries are falling way behind. The high-performing countries have created a path for others to follow. UNAIDS has worked with its partners to distil those lessons into a set of proposed targets for 2025 that take a people-centred approach.

The targets focus on a high coverage of HIV and reproductive and sexual health services together with the removal of punitive laws and policies and on reducing stigma and discrimination. They put people at the centre, especially the people most at risk and the marginalized—young women and girls, adolescents, sex workers, transgender people, people who inject drugs and gay men and other men who have sex with men.

New HIV service delivery targets aim at achieving a 95% coverage for each sub-population of people living with and at increased risk of HIV. By taking a person-centred approach and focusing on the hotspots, countries will be better placed to control their epidemics.

The 2025 targets also require ensuring a conducive environment for an effective HIV response and include ambitious antidiscrimination targets so that less than 10% of countries have punitive laws and policies, less than 10% of people living with and affected by HIV experience stigma and discrimination and less than 10% experience gender inequality and violence.

Prevailing against pandemics

Insufficient investment and action on HIV and other pandemics left the world exposed to COVID-19. Had health systems and social safety nets been even stronger, the world would have been better positioned to slow the spread of COVID-19 and withstand its impact. COVID-19 has shown that investments in health save lives but also provide a foundation for strong economies. Health and HIV programmes must be fully funded, both in times of plenty and in times of economic crisis.

“No country can defeat these pandemics on its own,” said Ms Byanyima. “A challenge of this magnitude can only be defeated by forging global solidarity, accepting a shared responsibility and mobilizing a response that leaves no one behind. We can do this by sharing the load and working together.”

There are bright spots: the leadership, infrastructure and lessons of the HIV response are being leveraged to fight COVID-19. The HIV response has helped to ensure the continuity of services in the face of extraordinary challenges. The response by communities against COVID-19 has shown what can be achieved by working together.

In addition, the world must learn from the mistakes of the HIV response, when millions in developing countries died waiting for treatment. Even today, more than 12 million people still do not have access to HIV treatment and 1.7 million people became infected with HIV in 2019 because they did not have access to essential HIV services.

Everyone has a right to health, which is why UNAIDS has been a leading advocate for a People’s Vaccine against COVID-19. Promising COVID-19 vaccines are emerging, but we must ensure that they are not the privilege of the rich. Therefore, UNAIDS and partners are calling on pharmaceutical companies to openly share their technology and know-how and to wave their intellectual property rights so that the world can produce successful vaccines at the huge scale and speed required to protect everyone.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

There are significant gaps in HIV testing among key populations at higher risk of HIV infection, resulting in suboptimal levels of knowledge of their HIV status. HIV testing is a critical gateway to HIV prevention and treatment services. Without knowledge of HIV status, people cannot access life-prolonging HIV treatment services.

Analysis of data from special surveys shows that, on average, about two thirds of sex workers and gay men and other men who have sex with men globally either had taken an HIV test and received the results within the past 12 months or had previously tested positive for HIV—meaning that about one third did not know their HIV status. This testing gap was even larger for people who inject drugs. These surveys are often conducted where key population-friendly services are available and may overstate overall testing coverage.

In 2019, the proportion of new adult HIV infections globally among key populations and their sexual partners was 62%. This shift to an HIV epidemic increasingly among key populations is a result of the strong progress in HIV prevention in settings with high HIV prevalence in eastern and southern Africa, combined with a mixture of progress and setbacks in lower-prevalence regions.

Key populations—which include sex workers, people who inject drugs, prisoners, transgender people, and gay men and other men who have sex with men—constitute small proportions of the general population, but they are at elevated risk of acquiring HIV infection, in part due to discrimination and social exclusion.

GENEVA, 14 August 2020—UNAIDS is deeply concerned by reports of the targeting and arrest of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights activists as they peacefully exercise their rights to freedom of expression and association, as well as reports of discrimination, repression, and scapegoating of LGBTI people.

UNAIDS has been made aware that on August 7 a protest against the detention of LGBTI activist, Margot Szutowicz, currently being held for two months of pre-trial detention, resulted in reports of police violence and over 50 arrests. This followed recent arrests of activists for placing rainbow flags on public monuments, ostensibly carried out under Article 196 of Poland’s criminal code, which calls for up to two years in prison for anyone who “offends the religious feelings of others by publicly insulting a religious object or place of worship.”

International and European human rights bodies have affirmed the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. They have also affirmed the fundamental right to be free from discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity.

The 2016 United Nations General Assembly High-Level Political Declaration on Ending AIDS recognizes that discrimination, particularly discriminatory and abusive use of law enforcement powers, create significant barriers to people’s health and well-being, including their access to HIV prevention, treatment and care services, barriers that governments have committed to removing. Stigma and discrimination have been shown to increase violence, abuse and harassment against LGBTI people and to cause significant harm to their physical and mental health and well-being, their inclusion in society and their ability to access work, education and essential services.

The actions in Poland limit freedom of speech and, when combined with discriminatory application that targets human rights defenders, undermine equality, the rule of law and people’s access to essential services. In the context of closing civic space for advocacy to end discrimination in areas such as LGBTI rights, sexual and reproductive health and gender equality, freedom of speech protections are more vital than ever.

UNAIDS is concerned by the ongoing and intensifying persecution of LGBTI people in Poland, including the encouragement of so-called “LGBT ideology-free zones” throughout the country over the last year and up to recent mounting crackdowns on human rights defenders exercising their fundamental human rights to advocate for an end to discrimination.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

The opening session of the 2020 International AIDS Conference shared the findings of a rapid online survey demonstrating the increased socioeconomic vulnerability of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people due to COVID-19.

UNAIDS, the LGBT+ Foundation and researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and other universities around the globe convened a COVID-19 disparities working group. It surveyed more than 20 000 LGBTI people in 138 countries in April and May and found that three quarters (74%) were fully or partially locked down, leading to economic consequences for many.

About 13% of the survey participants have already lost their jobs in the wake of the pandemic and a fifth (21%) are expecting to lose it in the near future. Nearly half the survey participants (47%) faced economic difficulty, with a quarter unable to meet their basic needs, skipping meals or reducing meal sizes.

Of concern, 21% of participants living with HIV reported that they had experienced “interrupted or restricted access” to refills of antiretroviral therapy and 42% of those said they had less than a month’s supply on hand. Worrisome disruptions were also reported for pre-exposure prophylaxis and access to HIV testing. The study also highlights that racial and ethnic minorities consistently have lower access to HIV services.

Erik Lamontagne, Senior Economist at UNAIDS and one of the members of the working group, reported at the conference that the crisis had pushed 1% of respondents to start engaging in sex work and that 2% had to continue to sell sex during the COVID-19 pandemic, risking exposure to the coronavirus. The pandemic has reduced the ability to negotiate safer sex for 13% of respondents, potentially increasing their risk of acquiring HIV. Respondents also reported reduced access to safe injecting equipment and opioid substitution therapy.

“What worries us is that socioeconomic factors, such as limited access to health care, lower income, unemployment and food insecurity, combined with higher anxiety and depression rates, may place some at higher risk of contracting HIV and affect treatment adherence among people living with HIV,” said Mr Lamontagne.

The study shows that COVID-19 increases the vulnerability of groups that are already disproportionately affected by HIV. Solutions and targeted programmes are required from the global community and governments to sustain prevention, testing and treatment services and to help the LGBTI community not only to survive but emerge from the crisis.