South Asia: UN rights chief applauds initiative to fight trafficking and HIV/AIDS

The top United Nations rights official has applauded a South Asian initiative to fight HIV/AIDS and the trafficking of women, issues he called "two of the gravest human rights challenges facing the international community today."

Bertrand Ramcharan, the Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the two issues "affect women and girls disproportionately, leading to the denial of their rights to liberty and security, the right to freedom from torture, violence, cruelty of degrading treatment, the right to freedom of movement, the right to home and family, the right to health and education - everything that makes for a life of dignity."

In a statement issued in Geneva yesterday, Mr. Ramcharan lauded the Asian Women's Human Rights Council (AWHRC) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) for organizing the South Asia Court of Women on the Violence of Trafficking and HIV/AIDS held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, from 11 to 13 August.

"Protection and promotion of the rights of women affected by trafficking and HIV/AIDS is a critical responsibility of all States and civil society organizations," he said. "And yet despite the undeniable human rights dimensions of trafficking and HIV/AIDS, these problems are too often addressed exclusively as 'law and order' or moral problems."

Mr. Ramcharan said victims of trafficking and people living with the pandemic are often stigmatized and criminalized as illegal aliens, undocumented migrants or vectors of disease.

"The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights extends respect, support and solidarity to all the women who have shown immense courage to come forward and present their testimonies at this South Asia Court," he stated.