Sexual and Reproductive Health of HIV Positive Women and Adolescent Girls

This report summarizes discussion from two electronic forums on human rights dimensions of services and policies related to the sexual and reproductive health of HIV-positive women. The overarching issue was the high degree of stigma and discrimination experienced by HIV-positive women.

Resulting violations of their human rights were prominent themes throughout the duration of both discussions, and provided a backdrop to virtually all other topics discussed. Another major theme was the lack of the most basic services responsive to the needs of HIV-positive women. Women face significant barriers at the domestic, community, regional and national level in realizing their rights and sexual and reproductive health. Among those mentioned included: inaccessibility of health centres; lack of respect for female patients' rights and judgmental attitudes among health care workers.