Young community leaders, United Nations representatives and advocates discussed how young people can make a difference in ensuring that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets on HIV and sexual and reproductive health and rights can be realized for all, including marginalized young people.

The youth-led event took place on 24 September on the sidelines of the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly, taking place in New York. It was co-convened by UNAIDS, the Link Up Consortium, Stop AIDS Now, the PACT, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS and the Civil Society Working Group on HIV.

According to the participants, the SDGs will need to include the voices of young people to set national priorities, develop and monitor strategies and indicators, and review processes at all levels for their successful implementation in order to reach the targets.

To ensure that no one is left behind, the participants also stressed the need to set up systems to gather comprehensive data about groups recognized as vulnerable to discrimination and exclusion, as well as other relevant groups.

The common message agreed by all panelists was that youth-led accountability is critical to ensure that governments make progress to achieve the end of the AIDS epidemic and universal access to sexual and reproductive health services.

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A multimedia campaign led by the MTV Staying Alive Foundation in conjunction with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, PEPFAR, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, UNICEF and UNFPA has prompted more than 47 000 young people to seek HIV testing and counselling services in Nigeria.

An educational initiative, On Tour with MTV Shuga—created around the award-winning drama series MTV Shuga—trained 160 Nigerian peer educators to facilitate HIV testing and to spread information and positive messaging based on the show in their communities. Of the more than 47 000 young Nigerians who were tested for HIV, 688 were found to be HIV-positive and were referred for HIV treatment.

Since its launch in 2009, MTV Shuga—a modern day drama about love, sex and relationships among Nigerian youth—has reached up to 550 million people worldwide, while 40 million people have been reached via social media. A total of 122 broadcasters are currently lined up to air the new season IV of the show. Among the topics covered in the new season are first sex, grooming of adolescent girls, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, disclosure of HIV status, sexual assault within a relationship, stigma, mentoring and the use of helplines.

United Nations entities call on States to act urgently to end violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI)[1] adults, adolescents and children.

All people have an equal right to live free from violence, persecution, discrimination and stigma. International human rights law establishes legal obligations on States to ensure that every person, without distinction, can enjoy these rights. While welcoming increasing efforts in many countries to protect the rights of LGBTI people, we remain seriously concerned that around the world, millions of LGBTI individuals, those perceived as LGBTI and their families face widespread human rights violations. This is cause for alarm – and action.

Failure to uphold the human rights of LGBTI people and protect them against abuses such as violence and discriminatory laws and practices, constitute serious violations of international human rights law and have a far-reaching impact on society – contributing to increased vulnerability to ill health including HIV infection, social and economic exclusion, putting strain on families and communities, and impacting negatively on economic growth, decent work and progress towards achievement of the future Sustainable Development Goals. States bear the primary duty under international law to protect everyone from discrimination and violence. These violations therefore require an urgent response by governments, parliaments, judiciaries and national human rights institutions. Community, religious and political leaders, workers’ organizations, the private sector, health providers, civil society organizations and the media also have important roles to play. Human rights are universal – cultural, religious and moral practices and beliefs and social attitudes cannot be invoked to justify human rights violations against any group, including LGBTI persons.

PROTECTING INDIVIDUALS FROM VIOLENCE

States should protect LGBTI persons from violence, torture and ill-treatment, including by:

• Investigating, prosecuting and providing remedy for acts of violence, torture and ill-treatment against LGBTI adults, adolescents and children, and those who defend their human rights;
• Strengthening efforts to prevent, monitor and report such violence;
• Incorporating homophobia and transphobia as aggravating factors in laws against hate crime and hate speech;
• Recognizing that persecution of people because they are (or are perceived to be) LGBTI may constitute a valid ground for asylum, and not returning such refugees to a place where their life or freedom might be threatened.

The United Nations and others have documented widespread physical and psychological violence against LGBTI persons in all regions - including murder, assault, kidnapping, rape, sexual violence, as well as torture and ill-treatment in institutional and other setting. LGBTI youth and lesbian, bisexual and transgender women are at particular risk of physical, psychological and sexual violence in family and community settings. LGBTI persons often face violence and discrimination when seeking refuge from persecution and in humanitarian emergencies. They may also face abuse in medical settings, including unethical and harmful so-called "therapies" to change sexual orientation, forced or coercive sterilization, forced genital and anal examinations, and unnecessary surgery and treatment on intersex children without their consent. In many countries, the response to these violations is inadequate, they are underreported and often not properly investigated and prosecuted, leading to widespread impunity and lack of justice, remedies and support for victims. Human rights defenders combatting these violations are frequently persecuted and face discriminatory restrictions on their activities.

REPEALING DISCRIMINATORY LAWS

States should respect international human rights standards, including by reviewing, repealing and establishing a moratorium on the application of:

• Laws that criminalize same-sex conduct between consenting adults;
• Laws that criminalize transgender people on the basis of their gender expression;
• Other laws used to arrest, punish or discriminate against people on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

In 76 countries, laws still criminalize consensual same-sex relationships between adults, exposing individuals to the risk of arbitrary arrest, prosecution, imprisonment – even the death penalty, in at least five countries. Laws criminalizing cross-dressing are used to arrest and punish transgender people. Other laws are used to harass, detain, discriminate or place restrictions on the freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. These discriminatory laws contribute to perpetuating stigma and discrimination, as well as hate crime, police abuse, torture and ill-treatment, family and community violence, and negatively affect public health by impeding access to health and HIV services.

PROTECTING INDIVIDUALS FROM DISCRIMINATION

States should uphold international human rights standards on non-discrimination, including by:

• Prohibiting discrimination against LGBTI adults, adolescents and children in all contexts – including in education, employment, healthcare, housing, social protection, criminal justice and in asylum and detention settings;
• Ensuring legal recognition of the gender identity of transgender people without abusive requirements;
• Combating prejudice against LGBTI people through dialogue, public education and training;
• Ensuring that LGBTI people are consulted and participate in the design, implementation and monitoring of laws, policies and programmes that affect them, including development and humanitarian initiatives.

LGBTI people face widespread discrimination and exclusion in all contexts - including multiple forms of discrimination based on other factors such as sex, race, ethnicity, age, religion, poverty, migration, disability and health status. Children face bullying, discrimination or expulsion from schools on the basis of their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity, or that of their parents. LGBTI youth rejected by their families experience disproportionate levels of suicide, homelessness and food insecurity. Discrimination and violence contribute to the marginalization of LGBTI people and their vulnerability to ill health including HIV infection, yet they face denial of care, discriminatory attitudes and pathologization in medical and other settings. Transgender people are frequently denied legal recognition of their preferred gender or face abusive requirements such as forced sterilization, treatment or divorce to obtain it, without which they suffer exclusion and marginalization. The exclusion of LGBTI people from the design, implementation and monitoring of laws and policies that affect them perpetuates their social and economic marginalization.

UNITED NATIONS SUPPORT

Our organizations stand ready to support and assist Member States and other stakeholders as they work to address the challenges outlined in this statement – including through constitutional, legislative and policy changes, strengthening of national institutions, and education, training and other initiatives to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the human rights of all LGBTI people.

[1] While this statement refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people, it should also be read to refer to other people who face violence and discrimination on the basis of their actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics, including those who may identify with other terms.

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.

Brazil’s biggest television network, Globo Television, has partnered with UNAIDS to stop new HIV infections among young people.

As part of the Live Better campaign, Globo, the second largest television network in the world, will broadcast a 30-second public service announcement promoting HIV prevention three times a day throughout September. The campaign was launched during the Saturday night show Altas Horas, which is widely watched by young people in Brazil, and will feature on its various entertainment and news shows.

The public service announcement calls on young people to open their eyes to HIV testing. It encourages young people to test for HIV and to start treatment early if necessary.

According to government estimates, the number of people newly infected with HIV increased by 11% between 2005 and 2013 in Brazil. Over the past decade, the country has seen a 50% increase in the number of new HIV infections among boys aged between 15 and 19 years.

UNAIDS Brazil Goodwill Ambassador Mateus Solano and Brazilian singer and UNAIDS supporter Wanessa Camargo are supporting the campaign through social media, on live shows and in videos.

The public service announcement will become part of the network’s film bank and will be available for use on national and local advertisement windows after September.

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UNAIDS has been awarded first prize in the Popular Medicine category of the British Medical Association (BMA) Book Awards for its book The Bravest Boy I Know.

The prestigious awards were announced at a ceremony on 3 September at BMA House in London. An annual event, the awards aim to encourage and reward excellence in medical publishing, with prizes given out in categories and an overall BMA Medical Book of the Year award made from the category winners.

The Bravest Boy I Know is about two friends, Kendi and Kayla. Kendi is living with HIV. The story is set in Africa and is a heart-warming tale of how the two friends deal with HIV in a positive way. The book conveys the important message that by taking medicine, children living with HIV can live active and healthy lives, while also explaining that the medicines can make children feel unwell and tired.

The judges noted that the book, “Is a unique offering … and is well-presented and engaging. If used appropriately it could be an important public health tool.”

UNAIDS Director of Communications and Global Advocacy Annemarie Hou, accepting the award on behalf of UNAIDS, said, “This is a tremendous honour and recognition that children everywhere need access to high-quality health information.”

The book, which is beautifully illustrated by celebrated artist Sujean Rim, was launched in May 2014 by UNAIDS and the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s Sustainable Tourism for Eliminating Poverty (ST-EP) Foundation at an event attended by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Ambassador Dho Young-shim, Chairperson of the ST-EP Foundation. The book is dedicated to Mr Ban for his work in prioritizing education through the Global Education First Initiative, which aims to put every child in school, improve the quality of learning and foster global citizenship.

Speaking at the launch in 2014, Mr Ban said that, “This book, which will be delivered to schools across Africa through ST-EP’s Small Libraries project, will help everyone understand that young people can live normal and fulfilling lives with HIV.”

Ambassador Dho said at the launch in 2014, “As the UN MDGs Advocate for Education, I firmly believe in the power of education to accelerate the achievement of all UN MDGs by 2015, and particularly Goal 6—aimed at HIV. This meaningful collaboration with UNAIDS is creating synergies that will have a powerful impact on the education and the health of children.”

In addition to winning first prize in the Popular Medicine category, UNAIDS was also Highly Commended for The Gap Report in the Public Health category and for The Cities Report in the Health and Social Care category.

While major advances have been made in responding to HIV and ensuring access to lifesaving treatment, progress for adolescents urgently needs to be scaled up. Young people, especially young women and young key populations, continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV—In 2014, there were 3.9 million young people aged between 15 and 24 years living with HIV and 620 000 young people became newly infected with the virus. AIDS is now the leading cause of death among young people in Africa and the second leading cause of death among young people world-wide.  

Young people are continuing to face immense challenges in accessing timely and appropriate health education—including comprehensive sexuality education, social services—including access to youth friendly services, and decent housing and job opportunities. However, the opportunities for youth to engage in decision-making processes to ensure access to these essential services remain limited.

To celebrate International Youth Day and young people’s empowerment, UNAIDS and The PACT, a global coalition of youth-led and youth-serving organizations, met in Bangkok to discuss ways of ensuring the active participation of youth in efforts to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030.

The three-day meeting, held from 10-12 August, focused on shaping The PACT’s strategy to mobilize the global youth movement and build the capacity of youth organizations to engage in the AIDS response. They addressed issues such as policy and legal barriers for young people’s access to HIV services, scale-up of evidence-based HIV prevention and treatment programmes and increasing resources for youth organizations.

The PACT committed to continue to shape a strategy to ensure that young people are meaningfully engaged in All In—an initiative led by UNAIDS, Unicef and partners to end HIV among young people. Participants also agreed on a strategy to mobilize youth organizations to hold governments’ accountable for ensuring access to comprehensive sexuality education and youth friendly services.

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The United States of America (US) released an updated AIDS strategy on 30 July which sets the course for its domestic response to HIV over the next five years. The National HIV/AIDS Strategy: Updated to 2020 sets ambitious targets which put particular focus on the people and places most in need.

The US strategy mirrors many of the goals of UNAIDS Fast-Track approach. It calls for 90% of people living with HIV to be aware of their status, aims to increase the percentage of people living with HIV who are retained in medical care to at least 90% and to ensure that 80% of all people diagnosed with HIV have a suppressed viral load which reduces the likelihood of transmitting the virus by around 96%.

Commenting on the new strategy President Obama said that it seized upon rapid shifts in science and policy as more had been learned about the disease. He also said it focused on making sure that every American could get access to life-extending care, no matter who they were, where they lived or how much money they had.

The strategy recommends that efforts be concentrated on people who are being left behind in the response to HIV, namely, gay men and other men who have sex with men, especially African American men, heterosexual African American men and women, young people, people who inject drugs and transgender women. It calls for full access to comprehensive pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) services for those for whom they are appropriate and desired. The strategy also prioritizes certain geographic areas where HIV incidence is high and linkage to, and retention in care is low, including the southern US and specific major metropolitan areas, like Washington, DC.         

“I commend President Obama on the bold, new goals set in the updated US strategy which align with the UNAIDS ‘Fast-Track’ approach. The United States joins other nations in pursuit of key prevention, testing and treatment targets that, if met by 2020, put the world on course to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS.          

According to the latest data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are an estimated 1.2 million people living with HIV in the US, of whom 1 in 8 are unaware of their HIV status. CDC also estimates that 50% of Americans who are diagnosed with HIV are not retained in medical care and that only 37% are accessing life-saving HIV treatment.

At the event to launch the revised strategy, which was held in Atlanta, Georgia, it was also announced that Mayor Kasim Reed had signed the Paris Declaration—Fast-track cities: Ending the AIDS epidemic. In signing the declaration, the mayor has committed to putting Atlanta on the Fast-Track to ending the AIDS epidemic through a set of commitments. Those commitments include achieving the UNAIDS 90–90–90 targets, which will result in 90% of people living with HIV knowing their HIV status, 90% of people who know their HIV-positive status on antiretroviral treatment and 90% of people on treatment with suppressed viral loads, keeping them healthy and reducing the risk of HIV transmission.

The Fast-Track Cities Initiative is supported by its core partners, namely, the City of Paris, the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), UNAIDS and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).

At the 16th FINA World Championships in aquatics, visitors, athletes and volunteers are learning more about HIV.  The event, being held from 24 July to 9 August in Kazan, Russia, is promoting Dive safely!, an initiative to raise awareness about HIV and encourage people to learn their HIV status. 

Located in the Dive safely! pavilion in the FINA Water World park, the initiative provides HIV prevention materials and offers free, confidential HIV tests to its visitors during the two week championship.

Opening the pavilion, the President of FINA, Dr Julio Maglioni said, "It is an unexpected gift for me to be here today. The AIDS response is very important for the health of our world. It is very important now to unite in order to stop this disease in the name of sport.”

Alexander Zhukov, President of the Russian Olympic Committee, invited all young people at the FINA World Championship to visit the Dive safely! pavilion and take an HIV test. “Every young person should know about HIV and know their status," said Mr Zhukov.

Alexander Zhukov confirmed that the Russian Olympic Committee will soon increase its cooperation on HIV prevention through a new agreement with UNAIDS, and will expand its HIV prevention projects during upcoming international sporting events in Russia, such as the World Football Championship in 2018. 

A social media campaign for the FINA World Championships led by the UNAIDS Regional Youth Red Ribbon Team—a group of young celebrities from Eastern Europe and Central Asia—was launched on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, encouraging people to learn about HIV and to post photos and messages with the hashtag #divesafely.

Since the pavilion was opened, more than 500 people have visited every day, with more than 200 people being tested onsite each day for HIV. The tests are carried out by doctors from the Republican AIDS Center of Tatarstan and any positive results are referred to the AIDS Center in Kazan.

Dilyara Vagapova, spokesperson for the #divesafely campaign, called on people to know their HIV status. "Together we can end AIDS in our countries. To be fashionable means to know your HIV status!"

Dive safely! (Легкой воды! in Russian) is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Executive Directorate for Sports Projects, the local non-governmental organization New Century (“Novyi Vek”),  the Tatarstan Republican AIDS Centre and UNAIDS.