Advocating for medicines in national and international arenas
Every person is entitled to a healthy life, just as he or she is entitled to information, privacy and the free expression of sexuality. These human rights apply to everyone, including people with HIV/AIDS. Access to medicines is a basic right of people, wherever in the world they may be. Hivos supports organisations that advocate on the national and international arenas to realise people’s right to medicines.
Millions of people are in desperate need of AIDS blockers. In southern Africa alone, more than three million children have been infected with the virus. Most of them do not receive any treatment or care. In many developing countries, medical procedures and affordable medicines are far from common, and particularly for excluded groups like women, people in rural areas and sexual minorities.
New government policies are needed to turn the tide to allow anyone to see a doctor, and to ensure that medicines are divided fairly – and are affordable. This will make it possible for pregnant women, for example, to give birth to healthy babies.
Hivos supports organisations that advocate on the national and international arenas for access to medicines for people in developing countries. This is badly needed in order to enable that access to medicines, to change policies so as to protect the rights of people with HIV/AIDS and to coordinate policies regarding development cooperation and AIDS.
This is no simple matter. Only a small number of developing countries boast organisations of people with HIV/AIDS. Stigmatisation, isolation and lack of medical treatment make them vulnerable. Moreover, the expertise needed to set up professional organisations is often missing. Hivos can help.
The Hivos approach:
- Hivos encourages home care and assistance for people with HIV/AIDS and their environments;
- Hivos challenges governments about their responsibility to make care and medicines available;
- Hivos helps to increase capabilities to ensure that organisations are actually heard;
- Hivos encourages the dialogue between organisations and network developers;
- Hivos champions the interests and priorities of women and sexual minorities in male-dominated government policies.
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