For 2020-2021, more than 6,000 cases of violation of rights, stigma and discrimination were documented in 7 countries of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region.
On December 10, Human Rights Day, the Alliance for Public Health is launching a regional information campaign “Declaration or Decoration of Human Rights?” in order to draw public attention to the glaring number and variety of violations in the EECA region, in particular – in relation to the most marginalized groups of society vulnerable to HIV and tuberculosis.
“Continuing human rights violations, the HIV epidemic will not be stopped. We have collected evidence of loud human rights violations that limit access to essential health services, prevention and treatment of HIV, tuberculosis and other diseases.” – states Andriy Klepikov, executive director of the Alliance for Public Health ICF. “According to REAct data, the main violators of rights in the EECA region are representatives of state institutions – medical workers, police, courts. Although it was the states that proclaimed their commitment to respect, protect and promote human rights and freedoms by signing the Declaration of Human Rights. It is the state, through its institutions and structures, that must protect and guarantee human rights, and not vice versa – violate them.”
“Analyzing the REAct cases, we saw that there is no area of life in which representatives of communities would not face stigma, discrimination or infringement of their rights. Not only human rights are violated constantly and often, and moreover – everywhere. The info campaign just illustrates this. It was not difficult for us to find examples of violations from real life under each of the thirty articles of the Declaration. And under the “hottest” articles like the right to freedom from cruel and inhuman treatment and torture, the right to freedom from arbitrary detention, we had to tearfully choose the loudest cases among hundreds of others. ”- says Victoria Kalyniuk, coordinator of the REACT system in EECA and author of the campaign idea.
Based on evidence collected through REAct and 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the information campaign “Declaration or Decoration of Human Rights?” was created not only to draw public attention to the main trends and nature of offenses, but also to make specific recommendations to improve the situation in each country.
All analytical reports and detailed information can be found on the campaign page – https://declaration.react-aph.org.
***
On December 10, 1948, The UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a milestone document proclaiming the fundamental human rights each individual is entitled for, without any discrimination.
The governments declared their commitment to respect, protect and promote human rights and freedoms and reinforced it in further documents.
However, 73 years later, the rights and freedoms proclaimed in the Declaration and further documents, are routinely and often violated, especially with regard to the most marginalized populations, vulnerable to HIV and TB.