Human Rights Remain Critical to HIV Responses: Health and Human Rights Call for Papers

Patrick Eba and Luisa Cabal

We must not become complacent about HIV, nor overlook the lessons learned from the past 35 years. The 21st International AIDS Conference held in Durban, South Africa in July 2016 called on the world to end the conspiracy of complacency and ensure that no one is left behind in the response to HIV. To that end, UNAIDS is guest editing a special section in December 2017 in the Health and Human Rights Journal on “HIV and human rights – Past, present and future”. 

Human rights have been the guiding light of the response to HIV. They remain critical to challenging vulnerability to the epidemic and to unlocking the barriers to access to HIV prevention, treatment and care services for those who need it most.

Full details of the issue and possible themes and topics are included in the “Call for Papers”, but it is expected the issue will cover:

• Critical reflections on the contribution of HIV to the development of health and human rights, and its role in building a synergetic movement of health and human rights practitioners and activists.
• Socio-legal studies on human rights challenges facing the response to HIV and affecting the implementation of rights-based responses to HIV, including in relation to key populations such as women, young people, prisoners, gay men and other men who have sex with men, transgender persons, sex workers, and people who inject drugs.
• Critical reflections on the successes and challenges of civil society, international organizations, and donors in advancing human rights in the context of HIV.
• A human rights analysis of the achievements and challenges with the HIV response in specific countries or regions.
• Critical reflections on approaches for advancing human rights in the fourth decade of the HIV epidemic and in the context of human rights and Sustainable Development Goals.
• Conceptual, theoretical analysis and critical reflections on the application of the human rights lessons learned from HIV to other public health challenges.

Papers of no more than 7000 words (including references) must be submitted by 28 February 2017. Author guidelines are here.  

Questions about this special section can be directed to UNAIDS Guest Editors Luisa Cabal at caball@unaids.org and Patrick Eba at ebap@unaids.org, or Carmel Williams, Executive Editor, Health and Human Rights Journal at HHRsubmissions@hsph.harvard.edu.