HIV and Human Rights in the Southern United States

This presentation will share findings from an intensive investigation by Human Rights Watch of human rights abouses throughout the southern United States that are blocking effective HIV interventions. Based on extensive research and interviews with people living with HIV and AIDS, their advocates, public health officials, legislators, judges and medical providers, Human Rights Watch documented numerous state laws and policies that create an "environment of risk" that has made the South the nation's epicenter for HIV infection and deaths from AIDS. In the south, where poverty levels are the highest in the nation, where fewer people have access to health insurance, and where incarceration rates are the highest in the country, state policies are contributing to the disproportionate impact of HIV on minority communities. The failure to invest in public health, Medicaid and HIV-specific programs; failed abstinence-based education; criminalization of HIV exposure; and failure of prison re-entry programs to ensure prevention and linkage to care are some of the policies that undermine both public health and human rights. Recommendations generated from the investigation will be identified and related to the goals of the National AIDS Strategy. Progressive responses in the region, e.g. North Carolina's new comprehensive sex education laws, and advocacy opportunities for expanding these models will be identified.