- About UNAIDS
- Our work
- Targets and commitments
- 2011 Political Declaration: Targets and elimination commitments
- Reducing sexual transmission
- Preventing HIV among drug users
- Eliminating new HIV infections among children
- 15 million accessing treatment
- Avoiding TB deaths
- Closing the resource gap
- Eliminating gender inequalities
- Eliminating stigma and discrimination
- Eliminating travel restrictions
- Strengthening HIV integration
- 2011 Political Declaration: Targets and elimination commitments
More feature stories on HIV-related travel restrictions
- Ahead of World AIDS Day CEOs call to end HIV travel restrictions
- This World AIDS Day, Chief Executives (CEO’s) from some of the world’s largest companies are calling for an end to travel restrictions for people living with HIV. More than 40 CEOs have signed an unprecedented pledge urging the repeal of laws and policies in 45 countries that still deport, detain or deny entry to people solely because they are living with HIV.
- SEROvie’s evolving MSM strategy
- After 22 years of absence, the International AIDS Conference is again taking place in the United States of America. This is a direct consequence of the government’s decision in 2009 to lift restrictions of entry into the country for people living with HIV. And precisely, the public health and human rights impacts of HIV travel restrictions were discussed at a satellite session on the first day of the conference.
- HIV Travel Restrictions: Latest Developments
- Co-hosted by UNAIDS and the Government of the Republic of Korea, the satellite session on HIV Travel Restrictions: Latest Developments aimed to hear new developments in Korea about their own restrictions as well as to take stock of where the global situation of travel restrictions stands some 30 years into the epidemic.
- President of Fiji committed to the AIDS response
- In a meeting with the President of Fiji on 27 August, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé commended the Fijian leader and his Government for recent amendments to the country’s 2011 HIV/AIDS Decree. Officially endorsed on 25 August, the amendments remove HIV-related travel restrictions and ensure greater protection for the rights of people living with HIV.
- HIV travel restrictions – a primary obstacle to universal access for migrants
- There are still about 50 countries, territories and areas around the world that impose some form of restriction on the entry, stay and residence of people living with HIV. Such restrictions remain a key form of discrimination, affecting the rights and freedom of movement of many migrants living with HIV and would-be migrants.
- Partners come together to lessen HIV-risk for migrants and mobile populations
- For the world’s 214 million international migrants and 740 million internal migrants the sometimes challenging conditions of the migration process can leave them vulnerable to HIV infection. During the General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS in New York, governments, civil society partners and intergovernmental agencies came together to examine ways of increasing access to HIV services for people on the move.
- Waiting for the world to change: Travel restrictions
- When Mark Taylor, a Canadian citizen working for a company in New York’s financial sector, fell in love with his life in the Big Apple, he never gave it a second thought to apply for permanent residency in the United States of America. It was 1995 and he was thriving both professionally and personally.
- “Now more than ever”: Marchers in Vienna call for protection of human rights and HIV
- Downtown Vienna was the backdrop for last night’s HIV and human rights march and rally on 20 July. The public event took place during the 18th International AIDS Conference which has brought some 20,000 activists and HIV professionals to the Austrian capital.
- The judiciary and the AIDS response
- The AIDS epidemic has raised new and complex legal and human rights challenges leading to judicial rulings on matters related to HIV that have become part of the jurisprudence of many countries. Through interpretation of national constitutions, legislation and international human rights treaties, the judiciary has sometimes had a transformative and beneficial impact on the national response to HIV and on the public perception of HIV.
- UN Secretary-General applauds the removal of entry restrictions based on HIV status by United States of America and Republic of Korea
- UNAIDS strongly welcomes the elimination of travel restrictions based on HIV status by the Republic of Korea, effective 1 January 2010. It also commends the United States for full implementation of the final rule that removes entry restrictions which means that travellers living with HIV can freely enter the United States of America as of today.
- UN Secretary-General urges countries to follow the United States and lift travel restrictions for people living with HIV
- Geneva/New York, 31 October 2009 — UNAIDS welcomes President Obama’s announcement of the final rule removing entry restrictions based on HIV status from US policy. The removal of HIV-related travel restrictions in the US overturns a policy that had been in place since 1987. Such restrictions, strongly opposed by UNAIDS, are discriminatory and do not protect public health.
- ECOSOC adopts resolution on UNAIDS
- The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) passed a resolution on UNAIDS by consensus at its 2009 substantive session on 24 July. Negotiations on the text were led by the Delegation of the Netherlands, in its capacity as Vice Chair of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board and ECOSOC member, and 31 countries – from all regions – co-sponsored the text.
- Third meeting of the International Task Team on HIV-related Travel Restrictions
- The International Task Team on HIV-related Travel Restrictions concluded its third meeting with draft recommendations towards the elimination of HIV-specific restrictions on entry, stay and residence. In the coming months, these will be finalized and presented to the boards of the Global Fund and UNAIDS this November and December.
- HIV-related travel restrictions
- Since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, governments and the private sector have implemented travel restrictions with regard to HIV positive people wishing to enter or remain in a country for a short stay (e.g. business, personal visits, tourism) or for longer periods (e.g. asylum, employment, immigration, refugee resettlement, or study).