{"id":11084,"date":"2022-11-18T22:40:39","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T19:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/react-aph.org\/?p=11084"},"modified":"2022-11-28T18:20:29","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T15:20:29","slug":"this-is-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/react-aph.org\/en\/this-is-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThis is just the tip of the iceberg!\u201d: the voice of communities is heard at the Fourth meeting of the EECA Judges\u2019 Forum on HIV, Human Rights and the Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On November 17-18, 2022, Tbilisi (Georgia) hosted the Fourth Forum of Judges of the EECA Region on HIV, Human Rights and the Law<\/strong>, organized by the country’s High School of Justice, together with UNDP, WHO, UNAIDS and other partners. The purpose of this event was to discuss and analyze key urgent factors, namely:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– study of the latest scientific, medical and epidemiological data;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– access to and awareness of people living with HIV and other key populations for judicial and legislative responses at the national, regional and international levels;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– problems and experience of their solution in the field of protecting the rights of people living with HIV, as well as other vulnerable groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the invited participants and speakers are judges, representatives of the National Institute of Justice, coordinators of the UNDP country office on HIV, health and development from selected EECA countries, including Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The session of the second day caused a special resonance among the Forum audience: \u201cHIV and human rights. Access to Justice<\/strong>“. It was there that Anna Dovbakh, Executive Director of the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association<\/a><\/strong>, presented cases of violation of rights and freedoms collected by the REAct tool on behalf of the communities of the EECA region. The presentation \u201cAccess of people living with HIV, affected by TB and key populations to justice, including in context of armed conflicts and other emergencies<\/strong>\u201d fully demonstrates the egregious situation in the region with legal mechanisms. According to the statistics that was managed to record for 2020-2022, in 5 countries of our region, only a small part of the recorded cases reach the court, and every third case is associated with violations of rights by law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWith my speech, I wanted to emphasize the special conditions in which our communities find themselves when faced with the legal system. And alas, they are not in our favor,\u201d Anna<\/strong> says. \u201cPeople do not want to go to court because they simply do not trust the state system. Self-stigma and discrimination also do not help to bring the matter to the end – it is easier for a person to remain silent than to defend his own by right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Ganna Dovbakh<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Among the main barriers to access to justice were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u25cf Particularly vulnerable position of women from risk groups.<\/a> <\/strong>According to the World Health Organization, one in three women experience intimate partner violence. Women who use drugs are five to twenty-four times more likely to experience gender-based violence than women in general. Only 40 percent of women survivors of violence seek help and only 10 go to the police. Support services for women in situations of violence should take into account the experience of each woman, be accepting and non-discriminatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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