Conceptualizing a Human Right to Prevention in Global HIV/AIDS Policy

5 Public Health Ethics 263-282

UNC Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2155933

20 Pages Posted: 2 Oct 2012 Last revised: 27 Jun 2018

See all articles by Benjamin Mason Meier

Benjamin Mason Meier

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Kristen Nichole Brugh

University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill

Yasmin Halima

American University - School of International Service

Date Written: October 2, 2012

Abstract

Given current constraints on universal treatment campaigns, recent advances in public health prevention initiatives have revitalized efforts to stem the tide of HIV transmission. Yet despite a growing imperative for prevention — supported by the promise of behavioral, structural, and biomedical approaches to lower the incidence of HIV — human rights frameworks remain limited in addressing collective prevention policy through global health governance. Assessing the evolution of rights-based approaches to global HIV/AIDS policy, this review finds human rights to have shifted from collective public health to individual treatment access. While the advent of the HIV/AIDS pandemic gave meaning to rights in framing global health policy, the application of rights in treatment access litigation came at the expense of public health prevention efforts. Where the human rights framework remains limited to individual rights enforced against a state duty bearer, such rights have faced constrained application in framing population-level policy to realize the public good of HIV prevention. Concluding that human rights frameworks must be developed to reflect the complementarity of individual treatment and collective prevention, this article conceptualizes collective rights to public health, structuring collective combination prevention to alleviate limitations on individual rights frameworks and frame rights-based global HIV/AIDS policy to assure research expansion, prevention access, and health system integration.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Human Rights, Disease Prevention

Suggested Citation

Meier, Benjamin Mason and Brugh, Kristen Nichole and Halima, Yasmin, Conceptualizing a Human Right to Prevention in Global HIV/AIDS Policy (October 2, 2012). 5 Public Health Ethics 263-282, UNC Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2155933, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2155933

Benjamin Mason Meier (Contact Author)

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ( email )

CB 3435
103 Abernethy Hall
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
United States
919-962-0542 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.benjaminmasonmeier.com/

Kristen Nichole Brugh

University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill ( email )

102 Ridge Road
Chapel Hill, NC NC 27514
United States

Yasmin Halima

American University - School of International Service ( email )

4400 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20016
United States

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