Rationale

Of about 1.2 billion young people worldwide (between the ages of 10 and 24), 11.8 million are currently estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS Every year it is estimated that over 2.6 million young people contract the virus through sexual route or through injecting drug use. In recent years, over half of all new HIV infections - about 7000 every day - are among youth aged 15-24 the same age group that also has the highest rates (111 million cases in this group every year) of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) . That is why young people are, and must be, at the center of action on HIV/AIDS.

Silence, taboos and myths often surround HIV/AIDS because it is associated with private and intimate behaviors. In this context, many factors may restrict young people’s full enjoyment of human rights and leave them particularly exposed to HIV/infection or vulnerable to needles suffering, if they are infected.

Asia is the home of 63 per cent of the world’s youth population. A majority of these adolescents and youth do not have access to information on the manifestation, causes, transmission, prevention and management of STDs/STIs including HIV/AIDS.
In 2001, 600000 newly infected were children and 500000 had died. Approximately half of all people who acquire HIV become infected before they turn 25. As the majority of people living with HIV/AIDS are living in the developing world, the majority of children and young people infected are living in the developing world. If HIV prevention in this huge population fails, developing countries will have to face the staggering human and economic costs of vast numbers of adult AIDS cases.

Increasingly, young people are being appreciated as a force for changing the course of the epidemic. They are responsive to HIV prevention programmes and are effective promoters of HIV prevention action. Investing in HIV prevention and networking among young people is likely to contribute significantly to a more sustainable response to HIV/AIDS.

Why focus on discrimination and stigmatization?
Stigma at societal level can lead to silence and denial - a refusal to acknowledge and deal with HIV/AIDS. This reinforces ignorance and fear, allowing prejudice to thrive, risky behavior to go unchanged and uncaring behavior to go unchallenged. It also ensures that people living with HIV/AIDS and their families remain silenced and sidelined.

HIV is heavily stigmatized in most societies, even though this behaviour is clearly irrational. People who are infected are rejected and scorned because social prejudice against the disease runs so deep. In some cases, people are stigmatized simply because of suspected association with HIV, or vulnerable individuals.

Stigma and discrimination are of concern to AIDS programmes for two main reasons. First, because they can make life unbearable for those living with the disease. Secondly, because they affect prevention and care efforts. People who have been exposed to HIV through their behaviour or that of their partner may be unwilling to be tested or to change their behaviour in any way for fear of being suspected of being HIV-infected.

If they are indeed infected, they may continue to spread the virus and will not accept to access adequate care. There are many ways that stigma can undermine prevention and care efforts. HIV-positive women may know that breast-feeding carries a risk of transmitting the virus to her infant, for example. But she my refuse alternative feeding methods (even when they re provided at no cost) because bottle-feeding will brand her as HIV-infected and carry the risk that she will be thrown out of the family.
Where stigma is high, people may avoid an HIV test that could provide an entry point for necessary care and support. Active discrimination has consequences for prevention too. If a person is fired from their job because they are HIV-infected, they may have to resort to survival strategies such as selling sex, which further fuels the epidemic.

Addressing stigma and discrimination is a commitment made at the United Nations General Assembly on HIV/AIDS in June 2001.

“Stigma, silence, discrimination and denial, as well as lack of confidentiality, undermine prevention, care and treatment efforts and increase the impact of the epidemic on individuals, families, communities and nations (Paragraph 13).

“By (the year) 2003, (nations should) ensure the development and implementation of multi-sectoral national strategies and financing plans for combating HIV/AIDS that address the epidemic in forthright terms; confront stigma, silence and denial; address gender and age based dimensions of the epidemic; (and) eliminate discrimination and marginalization’ (Paragraph 37)

“By (the year) 2003, (nations should) enact, strengthen or enforce, as appropriate, legislation, regulations and other measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination against, and to ensure the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedom by people living with HIV/AIDS and members of vulnerable groups, in particular to ensure their access to, inter-alia, education, inheritance, employment, health care, social and health services, prevention , support and treatment, information and legal protection, while respecting their privacy and confidentiality; and develop strategies to combat stigma and social exclusion with the epidemic’ (Paragraph 58).