HIV/AIDS institutional discrimination in Switzerland

A UNAIDS protocol designed to identify discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS was applied in Switzerland, a country where policies against such discrimination had been actively promoted since the beginning of the HIV epidemic. Discrimination, in its strict legal definition, was examined in nine areas of everyday life, and at three levels: legislation, written regulations, and actual practices. Data concerning both expert opinion and subjective experience of discrimination was gathered by members of an interdisciplinary work group by means of: (1) interviews with over 200 key informants and experts, covering each of the areas investigated, and (2) actively seeking testimonies as to experiences of discrimination through local AIDS groups and through informal contacts of work group members. The study revealed little institutional discrimination in the region investigated, attesting to the efficacy of clear and actively promoted anti-discrimination policies. Individual discrimination and stigmatisation persist, however. It is in combating individual discrimination and stigmatisation that efforts must now concentrate. The UNAIDS protocol was found to be a valuable tool for tracking the sorts of discrimination that can most easily be influenced by policy measures.