Stigma, Discrimination, and HIV/AIDS in Latin America and the Caribbean

Date
Feb 2003
This paper focuses on a rather unexplored dimension to date of the HIV/AIDS epidemic: the resulting stigma and discrimination and its impact on the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS programs. It presents a conceptual framework that explains the interplay between stigma, discrimination and human rights. The study also provides guidelines for developing programmatic activities that situate HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination within the broader social context where a variety of stigmas related to class, race, gender and ethnicity exist. Thus, the framework and the paper can be useful both to those fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS as well as to those fighting exclusion in other social contexts. This paper was prepared as a background document for a seminar entitled HIV/AIDS and Development: Challenges and Responses in Latin America and the Caribbean held at the Annual Meeting of the Boards of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank and Inter-American Investment Corporation in March 2002.