25th Annual Student Research Conference
AIDS/HIV and Health as a Human Right in South Africa
Emily A. Davis
Dr. Elaine McDuff, Faculty Mentor
Khayelitsha, a shanty township of 600,000 in the Western Cape of South Africa, has few schools, high unemployment, and a huge crime rate while claiming an HIV rate of 32 percent. This community is just one in our world where infection is increasingly concentrated in the poorest, most marginalized sectors of society, suggesting that structural inequalities continue to fuel the epidemic. HIV/AIDs is a global health pandemic, effecting not only the individual, but global development, creating a cycle of poverty, in which the worlds solutions often clash with fundamental human rights doctrine. Much of the rights discourse surrounding HIV/AIDS considers treatment and prevention strategies in regards to political and civil rights. However, there is a need to consider the implications of poverty for these communities by shifting the focus of human rights conversations to social and economic rights, where the primary goal is health as a human right.
Keywords: HIV/AIDS, human rights, structural inequalities , global health
Topic(s):Democracy and Human Rights in South Africa
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 101-7
Location: VH 1324
Time: 9:00