A/HRC/RES/12/27
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Recalling further Commission on Human Rights resolutions 2003/29, 2004/26 and
2005/23 and Council decision 2/107 of 27 November 2006, and their acknowledgement that
prevention and comprehensive care and support, including treatment and access to medication
without discrimination, for those infected and affected by pandemics such as HIV/AIDS,
tuberculosis and malaria are inseparable elements of an effective response and must be integrated
into a comprehensive approach to respond to such pandemics,
Recalling Commission on Human Rights resolutions 2002/31 of 22 April 2002, 2003/28 of
22 April 2003, 2004/27 of 16 April 2004 and 2005/24 of 15 April 2005, in which the
Commission reaffirmed the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard
of physical and mental health, and also recalling Council resolution 6/29 of 14 December 2007,
in which the Council extended the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to
the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health,
Taking note with interest of the reports by the United Nations special procedures that have
devoted specific attention, in the context of their mandates, to the critical intersection between
the protection of human rights and an effective response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic,
Noting with grave concern the fact that, according to estimates by the Joint United Nations
Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization, at the end of 2007, 33 million
people were living with HIV, including 2.7 million people newly infected with HIV in 2007, and
that a disproportionate number of them are presently in sub-Saharan Africa, and also deploring
the 25 million lives lost to HIV/AIDS since the epidemic was identified,
Recalling the urgent need to scale up efforts significantly towards the goal of universal
access to comprehensive prevention programmes, treatment, care and support by 2010, affirmed
by Governments in the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS, adopted by the General Assembly at
its High-level Meeting on HIV/AIDS on 2 June 2006, and emphasizing the concern at the
increasing instances of multiple or aggravated forms of discrimination, and reiterating that such
discrimination affects the enjoyment of human rights and can lead to particular targeting of
people living with HIV/AIDS and members of key populations affected by the epidemic, as well
as increased vulnerability to HIV, and also recalling the importance that States adopt or
strengthen programmes or measures to eradicate multiple or aggravated forms of discrimination,
in particular by adopting or improving penal or civil legislation to address these phenomena,
Expressing appreciation for the important role played by the engagement of civil society in
the response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic,
Welcoming the Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation and
Intellectual Property, adopted by the World Health Assembly on 24 May 2008,
Welcoming also progress in expanding access to HIV treatment, particularly the
35 per cent increase in the number of people receiving antiretroviral therapy from 2007 to 2008,
noting, however, that while nearly 3 million people in low- and middle-income countries were
estimated to be receiving antiretroviral medicines as of the end of 2007, an estimated 9.7 million
in need lacked access to such life-saving medicines, an estimated 1 million end-stage HIV/AIDS
patients had no access to treatment for moderate to severe pain, and many people in need failed
to receive treatment for tuberculosis and other HIV-related opportunistic infections,