Bangkok 2004. Prisoners' health and human rights in the HIV/AIDS epidemic

Prisoners exist on the margins of society, often without access to HIV prevention, care, treatment, or support. Depriving prisoners of the means to protect themselves from HIV infection, and failing to provide prisoners living with HIV with care, treatment, and support equivalent to that available in the community, offend international human rights norms. This article provides a summary of a draft paper prepared for Human Rights at the Margins: HIV/AIDS, Prisoners, Drug Users and the Law, a satellite meeting held in Bangkok on 9 July 2004, and organized by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and the Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit (India). The full text of the final paper, including references, is available on the Legal Network's website. The article reviews some of the international laws and instruments that protect the rights of prisoners and that set out minimum standards for treatment of prisoners; outlines activities in the prison setting that place prisoners at risk for HIV; describes some of the policies and societal factors that fuel the HIV/AIDS epidemic in prisons; and proposes a series of specific actions that should be taken now to respond to this epidemic.