People living with HIV seeking redress for violation of their rights
Export Indicator
Progress towards upholding the rights of people living with HIV
The existence of formal and informal redress mechanisms, and mechanisms for accessing affordable legal support services, are critical to ensuring that people living with HIV and key populations are able to access justice in the event that their rights are not upheld. However, availability does not necessarily equal use. It is important to capture the percentage of people living with HIV and key populations who are availing themselves of such services in order to identify potential challenges to access or acceptability of these mechanisms, including geographical location, sociodemographics or key population status.
Number of respondents who experienced one or more rights abuses in the last 12 months and reported seeking redress
Total number of respondents who reported having experienced one or more rights abuses in the last 12 months
Numerator/denominator
People Living with HIV Stigma Index. This indicator is calculated based on responses to a series of questions that first assess whether rights abuses have occurred in the last 12 months. Those who reported that rights abuses did occur in the past 12 months are asked if they tried to do anything about the matter, with those who answer "yes" asked specifically about what they did.
The indicator is constructed based on the response to the following question:
- If yes, what did you try to do about the matter?
- Filed a complaint (yes/no).
- Contacted a lawyer (yes/no).
- Contacted a government official or politician (yes/no).
- Spoke out publicly (yes/no).
- Contacted a community organization/network of persons living with HIV for support (yes/no).
- Other (please specify).
Agreement with any of these response options would constitute seeking formal or informal redress.
Every 2-3 years
- Key population (gay men or other men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people, people who use drugs).
- Gender (male, female, transgender, other, prefer not to say).
- Type of redress sought (formal = filed a complaint and/or contacted a lawyer; informal = contacted a politician, spoke out publicly and/or contacted a community organization/network of persons living with HIV for support; or other = other).
- Age group (18–19 years, 20–24 years, 25–49 years, 50+ years).
None
This indicator directly captures whether people living with HIV have sought redress following rights abuses experienced in the last 12 months.
Changes in the indicator should be interpreted as follows: an increase in the percentage indicates progress towards ensuring that redress mechanisms are available and utilized in response to rights abuses, whereas a decrease in the percentage indicates a reduction in redress sought after rights abuses and suggests the need for interventions to ensure availability, access to, use and effectiveness of redress mechanisms.
Such data will provide important information on whether people living with HIV are accessing available legal support services, and if they are using formal or informal redressal mechanisms that are in place in the country. The indicator does not capture whether a resolution to the rights abuse was achieved. While they are indicative of redress sought by people living with HIV in a given country or context, the data used to calculate the indicator are not generalizable beyond the people living with HIV sampled, as respondents to the People Living with HIV Stigma Index are selected using snowball sampling (versus random sampling methods).
Evidence for eliminating HIV-related stigma and discrimination: guidance for countries to implement effective programmes to eliminate HIV-related stigma and discrimination in six settings. Geneva: UNAIDS; 2020 (https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/eliminating-discrimination-guidance_en.pdf).
For more on the methods and survey instrument for the People Living with HIV Stigma study, see: https://www.stigmaindex.org/