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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 May 18.
Published in final edited form as: AIDS. 2008 Aug;22(Suppl 2):S123–S132. doi: 10.1097/01.aids.0000327444.51408.21

Table 2.

Definitions of search terms.

Human rights/rights Human rights are legally guaranteed under international human rights law. They protect against actions that interfere with fundamental freedoms and human dignity and support the agency of individuals and populations [12,22,23].
Stigma and discrimination HIV/AIDS-related stigma is the process of devaluing people because of their real or perceived HIV/AIDS status or that of their family and community.
HIV/AIDS-related discrimination refers to the legal institutional and procedural ways people are denied access to their rights because of their real or perceived HIV/AIDS status, or based on their real or perceived membership within already stigmatized and vulnerable groups such as sex workers and injecting drug users [24,25].
Participation Under human rights law, everyone is entitled to active, free and meaningful participation and inclusion in, contribution to, and enjoyment of civil, economic, social, cultural and political development.
Ensuring the inclusion and full participation of all key stakeholders and affected communities, with particular attention to the greater involvement of people living with HIV and AIDS (GIPA), at every stage of HIV policy-making and programming is recognized as essential to an effective response [26,28]
Vulnerable/marginalized groups Vulnerable and marginalized groups are broadly defined in the majority of human rights documents as comprising simply the most vulnerable or marginalized segments of the population. In HIV, increasingly, these groups are called ‘most at risk populations’.
Variation exists but in all cases these are understood to include injecting drug users, men who have sex with men, sex workers, and increasingly prison inmates, migrants/mobile populations, as well as women and young people. Questions exist about this more inclusive definition, which seems to leave out only adult men [29,30].
The Right to Health in Relation to Goods and Services (The 3AQ) The right to health has been defined by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to include the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of the goods and services provided.
This is commonly known as the ‘3AQ’ and the meaning of each of these terms is defined below:
Availability: This requires making available in sufficient quantity functioning healthcare facilities, goods and services, as well as programmes to address HIV and AIDS. Although these facilities, goods and services will vary by context, they should address the underlying determinants of health, such as safe and potable drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities, hospitals, clinics and other health-related buildings, trained medical and professional personnel receiving domestically competitive salaries, and essential drugs, as defined by the WHO Action Programme on Essential Drugs [28].
Accessibility: The concept of accessibility encompasses four distinct components:

  1. Non-discrimination: health facilities, goods and services must be accessible to all, especially the most vulnerable and affected populations;

  2. Physical accessibility: health facilities, goods and services must be physically accessible to all sections of the population, especially vulnerable or marginalized groups;

  3. Affordability: health facilities, goods and services must be affordable for all. Payments have to be based on the principle of equity, ensuring accessibility of needed services, whether privately or publicly provided; and

  4. Access to information: accessibility also includes the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas concerning health issues but this does not impair the right to have personal health data, including the results of HIV tests, treated with confidentiality [28].
Acceptability: Acceptability requires that all health facilities, goods and services be respectful of medical ethics and culturally appropriate, i.e. respectful of the culture of individuals, minorities, peoples and communities, sensitive to sex and life-cycle requirements, as well as being designed to respect confidentiality and improve the health status of those concerned [28].
Quality: Goods and services must be scientifically and medically appropriate and of good quality. Good quality services should include, inter alia, skilled medical personnel, scientifically approved and unexpired drugs and hospital equipment, safe and potable water and adequate sanitation [28].