Rights And Community Leadership Called Central To Ending AIDS By 2030

By Hamu Madzedze

Health and Gender Editor

RIO DE JANEIRO— At the 26th International AIDS Conference in Rio de Janeiro, rights advocates warned that progress against HIV faces challenges from rising anti-rights sentiment and deep funding cuts.

The SHE & Rights session, themed “Rising Anti-Rights and Anti-Gender Backlash: Threats to the Global AIDS Response, which was co-hosted by the Global Centre for Health Diplomacy and Inclusion (CeHDI) and CNS with partners including IPPF, ARROW and APCAT Media.

Shobha Shukla, SHE & Rights Host and Coordinator and Executive Director of CNS, said gender justice is the foundational bedrock to advance progress on each of the SDG targets and goals including those related to health or ending AIDS and TB by 2030.

“With only 54 months left to deliver on 2030 targets, we are at a critical crossroads,whatever progress has been made in the global AIDS response is threatened by sinister rise of attacks on health and gender rights” said Shukla.

Shukla highlighted the regressive draft African Charter on Family, Sovereignty and Values as a direct threat to gender equality and the right to health.

She added that the draft urges African governments to withdraw from progressive agreements, including the Maputo Protocol of 2003, which has been central to protecting the reproductive and health rights of women and girls.

" 2026 study across 47 countries that found steep reductions in community-led services, including 82% cuts to services for sex workers and 72% to services for survivors of gender-based violence she highlighted.

Shukla pointed out that gender equality is one of the strongest HIV prevention strategies and the goal of ending AIDS by 2030 .

"We cannot end AIDS without gender equality, bodily autonomy and the leadership of women in all their diversity,” Shukla said.

Mai Aman, Legal Officer at the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA) and part of the Pause for Purpose Campaign, presented a detailed legal critique of the African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (AU CEVAWG).

Aman highlighted that The Pause for Purpose campaign is a call to all stakeholders to pause, critically analyse the African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (AU CEVAWG), in order to form a view on whether the convention is fit for purpose.

“That is why our message is simple and very clear: Pause, listen, strengthen, then ratify.” said Aman.

Aman emphasised that there is no contradiction between urgency and due diligence.

She added that a treaty is legally binding and will shape national legislation, policy, court decisions and remedies for generations but the critical question is whether the present text strengthens protections already secured through the Maputo Protocol or introduces ambiguity and regression.

On process, Aman said many women’s rights organisations, survivors and civil society groups were not meaningfully consulted.

“In a survey of approximately 1,500 organisations, only 33% were aware the convention was being drafted before adoption, while 93% reported they had not been consulted"

Aman added that a treaty concerning African women cannot be developed without African women.

Aman noted the convention does not consistently articulate protections as enforceable rights with clear state obligations. Critical issues including female genital mutilation, child marriage, domestic violence, marital rape, trafficking and conflict-related sexual violence are not adequately addressed. Language on ‘family’ and ‘African values’ lacks clarity and risks being used by anti-rights actors to restrict women’s autonomy.

Numan Afifi of the APCOM Foundation in Thailand spoke on the compounding effect of backlash and funding cuts and just as the response faces an unprecedented funding crisis with deep cuts to HIV programs all around the world, it is being hit by a second crisis an organized, well-funded anti-rights and anti-gender backlash.

"These two crises are not separate and compound each other,” Afifi said.

Afifi noted the global HIV response has delivered extraordinary progress. Since 2010, new HIV infections have fallen by over 40% and AIDS-related deaths by 57%.

Last year 32 million people were on treatment. Yet in 2025 alone, 1.2 million people acquired HIV and someone still dies of an HIV-related cause every minute.

Executive Director of the Reproductive Health Network Kenya Nelly Munyasia, Executive said that when USAID left ,ARVs, check-ups, referrals, community outreaches, counselling and testing centres all came to a standstill and shelves went dry in terms of medications and also family planning supplies

Munyasia said abaseline survey in five counties in late July 2026 revealed spiked numbers of unintended pregnancies, HIV infections and reinfections, and unsafe abortions.

“Girls are arriving at facilities with ruptured uteruses,” Munyasia said.

She added that organised anti-rights groups are leveraging the crisis while diversity language disappears from policies.

Dr Edison Oduor, Programme Director at RHNK, said no single organisation can replace donor funding but only resilient, properly resourced government systems can deliver at scale.

Dr Oduor outlined four pillars which include building an intersectoral movement for sustainable SRHR aligned with government efforts, strengthening government systems rather than creating parallel programmes, integrating SRHR, HIV, contraception, maternal health, GBV response and other services into a single continuum of care and investing in digital health innovations that extend confidential reach, particularly for gender-diverse individuals.

#EndAIDS #GenderEquality

#HumanRights#Community-Led