Combating Stigma and Discrimination

Travel Policy for People Living with HIV

Denying entry, stay and residence due to HIV status, ten things you need to know.
Read the advocacy document developed by the International Task Team on HIV-related Travel Restrictions in English, French, Russian and Spanish.

International Task Team on HIV-related Travel Restrictions created by UNAIDS IAS serves as Task Team Secretariat. Read more.

For the past 18 years, IAS has strongly urged governments around the world not to ban entry of people living with HIV (PLHIV). This type of policy has no scientific, medical, or public health benefit, and only further stigmatizes them.

The IAS has appreciated the international policy implications and strategic importance of travel restrictions against PLHIV since 1989 when Dutch HIV-prevention expert Hans Paul Verhoef was jailed for four days in Minneapolis en route to an AIDS meeting in San Francisco after AZT was discovered in his suitcase, with subsequent demonstrations and mass boycott at the 1990 International AIDS Conference (IAC) in San Francisco.

The development of U.S. discriminatory travel laws and policies against PLHIV therefore subsequently resulted in relocating the 1992 IAC from Boston to Amsterdam. The IAC has not been held in the U.S. for 17 years.

A formal written policy was approved by IAS Governing Council on 21 July 2007, confirming that the IAS will not hold its conferences in countries that restrict short term entry of PLHIV, and/or require prospective HIV-positive visitors to declare their HIV status on visa application forms or other documentation required for entry into the country.

Read the IAS Policy Paper:Banning Entry of People Living with HIV/AIDS. Please find below IAS policy position on entrance visa discrimination in the US, China and Saudi Arabia and its comments on the United States Department of Homeland Security proposed ruling to “streamline” temporary visa provision for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Please find below IAS policy position. IAS urges you to share your comments and ideas with us, please click here if you would like to do so.

LIVING Partnership

During 2008, The International AIDS Society participated as a member of the LIVING Partnership – a collective of organizations working to mobilize advocacy and networking among HIV+ leaders around the world. Following the 12th International Conference for People Living with HIV, LIVING 2008: The Positive Leadership Summit, held in Mexico-City, from July 31st to August 1, 2008, just prior to the 17th International AIDS Conference, the partnership produced advocacy documents by and for people living with HIV/AIDS.

The LIVING Parntership harnesses the diversity of knowledge and experience of people living with HIV (PLHIV).

Through a global consensus building process, PLHIV leaders focused attention on key four themes:

Universal access to HIV treatment, care and prevention programmes
Prevention, with a focus on Positive Prevention
Sexual and reproductive health and rights of people living with HIV
Criminalization of the transmission of HIV

The advocacy documents produced on these themes are available at http://living2008.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 in English, Spanish and French. You can learn more about the LIVING Partnership and the LIVING 2008 Summit at www.living2009.org.

IAS Policy Position on Entrance Visa Discrimination in US, China and Saudi Arabia

The United States of America is one of the countries that prohibit HIV-positive foreigners to enter its borders. HIV-positive people must request a “special waiver” to be granted entrance to the US. This waiver, pictured above and referred to as “Waiver of 212(A)(1)”, is stamped into an HIV-positive person’s passport as a permanent record of his or her HIV status.

The IAS believes that people living with HIV/AIDS have the right to full enjoyment of their human rights, including the right to privacy, confidentiality and protection from stigma and discrimination. Short-term travel policies of any country, in which disclosure of HIV status is required for prospective visitors, treat HIV-positive people seeking entry on short term visas differently on the basis of their HIV-positive status. These are not only discriminatory, but also contribute to fuelling national and international stigma against people living with HIV/AIDS.

The IAS calls on all countries that restrict the short term entry of people living with HIV/AIDS and/or require prospective visitors to declare their HIV status to urgently lift such discriminatory policies. The IAS also urges countries to review policies in relation to HIV and restrictions on immigration and other longer-term entry, including adoption and student visas, in light of public health evidence and human rights principles.

The International AIDS Society will not hold its conferences in countries that restrict short term entry of people living with HIV/AIDS, and/or require prospective HIV-positive visitors to declare their HIV status on visa application forms or other documentation required for entry into the country.

IAS Statement on United States Department of Homeland Security proposed ruling to “Streamline” temporary visa provision for people living with HIV/AIDS

President George W. Bush announced on World AIDS Day 2006 that the White House would issue an Executive Order allowing HIV-positive people to enter the U.S. on short-term visas without seeking a special waiver. However to date, the Executive Order has not materialized.

Instead, on November 6, the U.S. Government proposed a new ruling (Department of Homeland Security Docket number USCBP-2007-0084), “Issuance of Visa and Authorization for Temporary Admission into the United States for Certain Nonimmigrant Aliens Infected with HIV”) which further strengthens the existing Policy banning entry of HIV-positive persons into the U.S. Public comments on this proposed ruling are due on December 6, 2007.

Read the official statement issued on December 4, 2007 and find here our detailed comments on the ruling.

At the opening plenary of the Fifth International AIDS Conference, Dr. Jonathan Mann, Director of the International AIDS Centre, of the Harvard AIDS institute, announced the relocation of the conference from Boston to Amsterdam. “This decision is clearly, unequivocally, a result of US policy on HIV and immigration,” he said: “It is an extremely serious matter when America’s oldest University has to leave the country to host a conference about a pandemic.”

Photo: John Creedy/ICF, courtesy of GNP+