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GENERAL
CRC/GC/2003/3
17 March 2003
Original: ENGLISH
COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
Thirty-second session
13-31 January 2003
GENERAL COMMENT No. 3 (2003)
HIV/AIDS and the rights of the child
I. INTRODUCTION1
1.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic has drastically changed the world in which children live.
Millions of children have been infected and have died and many more are gravely affected as
HIV spreads through their families and communities. The epidemic impacts on the daily life of
younger children, and increases the victimization and marginalization of children, especially
1
At its seventeenth session (1998), the Committee on the Rights of the Child held a day of
general discussion on the theme of HIV/AIDS and children’s rights, in which it recommended
that a number of actions be taken, including facilitating the engagement of States parties on
HIV/AIDS issues in relation to the rights of the child. Human rights in relation to HIV/AIDS
has also been discussed at the Eighth Meeting of Persons Chairing the Human Rights Treaty
Bodies in 1997 and has been taken up by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Similarly,
HIV/AIDS has been discussed annually by the Commission on Human Rights for over a decade.
UNAIDS and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have emphasized the rights of the
child in relation to HIV/AIDS in all aspects of their work, and the World AIDS Campaign
for 1997 focused on “Children Living in a World with AIDS” and for 1998 on “Force for
Change: World AIDS Campaign with Young People”. UNAIDS and the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have also produced The International Guidelines
on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights (1998) and its Revised Guideline 6 (2002) to promote and
protect human rights in the context of HIV/AIDS. At the international political level,
HIV/AIDS-related rights have been recognized in the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS,
adopted at the United Nations General Assembly special session, A World Fit for Children,
adopted at the United Nations General Assembly special session on children, and in other
international and regional documents.
GE.03-40816 (E) 050503