A/79/177
72. States are required to respect the right to health by refraining from denying or
limiting equal access for all persons to curative and palliative health services, which
also applies in crisis, conflict and humanitarian settings. 156 This obligation includes
providing persons deprived of their liberty with necessary medical care and with equal
access to preventive, curative and palliative health-care services. 157
2.
HIV transmission, exposure and non-disclosure
73. HIV-specific criminal laws, which criminalize HIV exposure, transmission and
non-disclosure, infringe on the right to health and related rights, including the rights
to privacy and to equality and non-discrimination. 158 Especially in the absence of
factual transmission, the harms of HIV non-disclosure and exposure do not warrant
criminalization. 159
3.
Abortion
74. States must ensure access to affordable, acceptable and quality sexual and
reproductive health information, goods and services, including abortion and post abortion care, without discrimination. The human rights framework supports the
elimination of all laws and policies that criminalize or otherwise punish abortion.
States must eliminate formal and substantive barriers to guarantee that abortion is
accessible in practice. Such barriers include policy and programmatic barriers, as well
as barriers in practice. 160
4.
Sex work
75. States have an obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of sex workers.
Echoing recommendations of a former Special Rapporteur on the right to health, 161
the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 162 the Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women 163 and multiple States 164 have urged
that States remove all laws, policies and practices that criminalize sex work. 165
Decriminalizing sex work would reduce the levels of discrimination, harassment,
violence and injury that sex workers currently experience, while making it possible
for them to seek justice for the violation of their rights in legal forums without fear
of punishment, violence and further stigmatization. 166
76. Various laws and policies can help to mitigate harm and promote health. Such
measures may include, for example: reducing policing; enacting measures to prevent
and address violence against sex workers, including confidential reporting and redress
__________________
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
24-13226
E/C.12/2000/4, para. 34; and A/HRC/56/52, para. 34.
A/HRC/56/52, para. 34; Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 36 (2018), para. 25;
and United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson
Mandela Rules), rule 24 (see General Assembly resolution 70/175, annex).
A/HRC/14/20, para. 56.
UNAIDS, Ending Overly Broad Criminalization of HIV.
Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 36 (2018), para. 8; and CCPR/CO/70/ARG,
para. 14.
A/HRC/14/20, paras. 46–50; and written submission by the Special Rapporteur regarding
European Court of Human Rights, M.A and Others v. France, Case Nos. 63664/16, 64450/19,
24387/20, 24391/20 and 24393/20, 30 September 2021, available at www.ohchr.org/sites/default/
files/documents/issues/health/sr/Fax-AC-MA-et-autres-c-France.pdf.
E/C.12/ZAF/CO/1, paras. 32–33; and E/C.12/RUS/CO/6, para. 53.
CEDAW/C/FJI/CO/4; CEDAW/C/TGO/CO/6-7, para. 25; and CEDAW/C/KAZ/CO/5, para. 27 (e).
A/HRC/46/12; A/HRC/33/16; and A/HRC/19/8.
A/70/811, paras. 53 and 75 (f).
A/HRC/50/28, para. 71; International Commission of Jurists, “The 8 March principles for a
human rights-based approach to criminal law proscribing conduct associated with sex,
reproduction, drug use, HIV, homelessness and poverty” (Geneva, March 2023), principle 15.
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