Widespread HIV-related stigma and discrimination in the health-care sector impedes access to services and impairs the quality of health-care delivery for people living with HIV and other key populations. It also undermines efforts to achieve the highest attainable standard of health for everybody.
At a two-day meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland, on 10 and 11 November, key stakeholders came together to discuss ways to eliminate all forms of discrimination in health-care settings, using the lessons learned from the AIDS response as an entry point. The event, organized by UNAIDS and the Global Health Workforce Alliance, also focused on the UNAIDS 2016–2021 Strategy and the upcoming Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030.
Stigma and discrimination in health takes many forms—the denial of health care and unjust barriers to service provision, inferior quality of care and a lack of respect. Abuse and other forms of mistreatment, violation of physical autonomy, mandatory testing or treatment and compulsory detention are other forms of stigma and discrimination encountered by people living with HIV.
The meeting concluded with a clear call for more coordinated action. UNAIDS and the Global Health Workforce Alliance were asked to develop a plan before next year’s Zero Discrimination Day, on 1 March, to work towards ending discrimination in health-care settings. Priorities include political advocacy, strengthening accountability mechanisms, sharing existing evidence and best practices and building evidence-informed policy for implementation and scale-up of programmes to reduce stigma and discrimination at all levels.
“UNAIDS’ strategy clearly calls for the elimination of discrimination in health-care settings, which is a significant barrier to achieving the end of the AIDS epidemic. At this meeting, governments, civil society actors, community representatives, health workers and professional associations have committed to scale-up their activities to end discrimination in health care and to advance human rights and better health for all.”
Luiz Loures, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director
“Getting to the goal of zero discrimination in health-care settings is itself linked to the development of institutions and systems able to provide just, people-centred health services. At its core this requires access to appropriately trained, well-supported health workers with a minimum core set of competencies. The upcoming Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030 calls for a paradigm shift in how we plan, educate, deploy and reward health workers. This in turn has important linkages to arriving at the goal of zero discrimination in health-care settings; including how best to integrate human rights and ethics training and supervision to ensure a sustained change in behaviour.”
Jim Campbell, Executive Director, Global Health Workforce Alliance
“Respecting the rights of and ensuring social justice for people living with HIV and those most vulnerable is our individual and collective obligation and not an option. For us to achieve an AIDS-free generation, we must stop discrimination against people living with HIV and address the stigma associated with AIDS. The 90–90–90 targets and Fast-Track will not be achieved otherwise.”
Somia Idris Osman Mohammed, Minister of Health of the Sudan
“Health is our right, and yet health-care settings are places where our rights are frequently violated, because of stigma, poor knowledge and ineffective systems that perpetuate discrimination. The transgender community faces multiple discrimination because of who we are, how we express ourselves, whom we love or our health status. The meaningful collaboration amongst communities, health-care providers and stakeholders is urgently required and communities need to be at the heart of efforts to eliminate discrimination in health care in order for them to succeed.”
Natt Kraipett, Asia Pacific Transgender Network
