Ensuring access to justice: the need for community paralegals to end AIDS by 2030

The HIV response has long recognized that certain "key populations" such as individuals in detention, adolescent girls and young women, sex workers, people who use drugs, LGBTQ individuals, migrants and others face higher barriers to access to, uptake of, and retention in HIV prevention and treatment services. One approach to addressing these barriers is the training of community paralegals to advocate for the rights of individuals and to address discrimination in health settings.

Community paralegal programmes have been able to successfully address rights violations that impact access to health services and underlying determinants of health across a range of countries and populations, focusing upon issues such as discrimination and the denial of health services; unlawful detention of outreach workers, sex workers, persons who use drugs and men who have sex with men; and harmful traditional practices and gender-based violence. In addition to resolving specific cases, evaluations of paralegal programmes have found that these programmes increased legal literacy among key populations at risk of HIV and increased understanding of human rights among healthcare providers, resulting in improved access to HIV services. Some evaluations have noted challenges related to the sustainability of paralegal programmes similar to those raised with community health worker programmes more broadly.

To achieve global HIV goals, funding for legal literacy and paralegal programmes should be increased and interventions should be rigorously evaluated. Efforts should target discrimination in access to HIV prevention and treatment and criminalization of key populations, two key barriers to ensuring access to HIV prevention and treatment services.