Children confronting HIV/AIDS: charting the confluence of rights and health

From a child rights perspective, HIV/AIDS serves to illuminate how cultural norms and legal precepts facilitate or constrain the protection of the child from HIV infection and from its individual and collective impacts. Recognition of human rights in the design, implementation, and evaluation of governmental policy can point the way toward actions which are not only necessary but, in public health terms, most effective. This article summarizes the three situations -- children infected, affected, and vulnerable -- and three levels of governmental obliations -- to respect, protect, and fulfill rights -- which should be considered when identifying children's specific needs and rights in the context of HIV/AIDS. The article then proposes a method to analyze systematically the confluence between HIV/AIDS and children's rights, creating opportunities for a synergy between those involved in HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and research, and others engaged to the promotion and protection of the rights of the child.