This Human Rights Day the global HIV response is facing its most challenging moment in decades.
A new UNAIDS report released last month ahead of World AIDS Day 2025, Overcoming Disruption, Transforming the AIDS Response details the far-reaching consequences of international funding reductions. Millions of people have lost access to HIV prevention services and the critical support to access life-saving treatment services. A deepening funding crisis, geopolitical fragmentation, and rollback of human rights protections have disrupted services and jeopardized decades of progress.
The advocacy of people living with, affected by and vulnerable to HIV, communities and civil society allies, who have built and sustained significant community health systems and have championed a human rights and gender transformative approach, has made an unparalleled contribution to the progress made to date in reaching people with HIV prevention, treatment and care services.
The current disruption of the HIV response also takes place in a growing anti-rights and anti-gender context, and when most high burden countries that were receiving external financial support for the HIV response have limited fiscal space, are highly indebted, and not immediately able to fund their domestic responses to HIV.
Punitive laws, stigma and discrimination continue to block access to HIV services for the most marginalized communities: women and girls, LGBTQ+ people, sex workers, people who use drugs, and incarcerated populations. When rights are denied, health is denied. When people fear arrest or violence for seeking care, the epidemic grows. Protecting and promoting human rights is therefore not optional, it is essential to ending AIDS.
However, amid these challenges, we see resilience. Communities are stepping up, governments are increasing domestic investments, and innovations in service delivery are emerging. But transformation will only succeed if it is anchored in human rights.
Human rights-based approaches are essential to a sustainable HIV response. Fostering resilient societies where human rights are protected and communities are enabled to lead requires long-term structural and systemic changes, including investments. This Human Rights Day, UNAIDS calls on global leaders to:
