Overview
HIV/AIDS and human rights is the field examining how the protection or violation of fundamental rights shapes the course of the HIV epidemic and the lives of people living with and affected by the virus. It rests on the recognition that vulnerability to infection, access to prevention and treatment, and health outcomes are determined not only by biology but by social, legal, and structural conditions. Central concerns include freedom from stigma and discrimination in healthcare, employment, and education; rights to privacy, confidentiality, and informed consent in testing and disclosure; non-discrimination on the grounds of HIV status, gender, sexual orientation, or occupation; and equitable access to antiretroviral therapy, prevention services, and supportive care. A rights-based approach holds that punitive laws, criminalization, and marginalization drive affected populations away from services and thereby undermine public-health goals, whereas legal protection, community participation, and the meaningful involvement of people living with HIV strengthen the response. The framework also addresses the rights of key and criminalized populations, gender inequality as a driver of risk, and the obligations of states to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to health. Scholarship in this area analyzes psychosocial determinants of treatment adherence, the lived experience of disability and long-term illness, and the design of policies and programs that align effective epidemic control with the dignity and autonomy of those affected.
Research published in this journal
5 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.
Disability and Health Outcomes – From a Cohort of People on Long Term ART
The Psychosocial Factors that Influencing Antiretroviral Treatment Adherence
Predictors of Adherence to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis among Female Sex Workers in South-Western Nigeria
The Practice of Using and/or Cutting The Body With Sharp Objects: A Case Study of University Students’ Risk Awareness in Selected Universities in Abia State
How this research is being cited
The 5 articles above have been cited 15 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.
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2026 · BMC Public Health
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2025 · Virology Journal
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Doreen Kamori et al. · 2024 · PLoS ONE
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2024 · PLoS ONE
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2024 · Journal of Microbiology & Experimentation
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2024 · Journal of Microbiology & Experimentation
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Ivo Nchendia Azia et al. · 2023 · BMC Public Health
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2023 · BMC Public Health
A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights, linking to each citing work.