Rights of Association and Expression

• Pages: 128-129

Contenidos

• The Issue.
• Legal and Policy Considerations.
• Practice Examples.
• References.

Page 128

The Issue

The rights to association and expression have been recognized as basic legal and human rights to which everyone is entitled in many national and regional constitutions. For persons with HIV, these freedoms may further their access to prevention and treatment, and assure them opportunities to congregate to express their concerns and needs. However, because of the social stigma attached to MSM, their rights can be curtailed through laws (e.g., against the promotion of homosexuality) as well as their own self-restrictions. MSM may be discouraged from meeting in public places, expressing their opinions and creative endeavors, participating in public health programs or research, and seeking public health services. Consequently they may be driven deeper underground making HIV prevention efforts less effectual.

Legal and Policy Considerations

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) protects the right to freedom of expression in Article 19, which states that: "everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." Similarly, Article 20 protects the right to "freedom of peaceful assembly and association." The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) also protects the right to freedom of expression (Article 19) and the rights to peaceful assembly (Article 21) and association with others (Article 22).

On a national level, laws vary from country to country in the degree of freedoms that they allow MSM (and others) in exercising their rights to association and expression. In some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, the law does not guarantee the rights to association or expression to its citizens. Other countries may place implicit or explicit restrictions on the rights of expression and association. For example, they may make the rights contingent on the preservation of "public order" or "morality" (see example of Honduras, below). Although a country's laws may guarantee rights to association and expression seemingly without restriction, in practice, these rights of MSM are dependent on the extent to which the laws are respected and enforced as well as the extent to which society is educated on and open to gender orientation issues.

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