Page 49 - Human Rights

Faculty of Nursing
Adult care Nursing Department

promote health and human rights and has resulted in increased awareness of the many issues

affecting vulnerable and neglected communities in Vancouver and across Canada”.

Prisoners across the world are at risk of infection and those prisoners infected with HIV suffer

discrimination.

A 2003 Human Rights Watch report on Kazakhstan described how, until 2002, compulsory HIV

testing for pre-trial prisoners had forced them to be segregated in special wards.

The report also indicated that other prisoners are at risk of contracting the disease due to
“overcrowded conditions, limited access to prevention services, unprotected sex and sexual

abuse, and needle sharing in prison”.

While segregated from the rest of the prison population, men were not given any treatment for

their condition.

Nurses interviewed in the report described the challenges in caring for HIV-positive prisoners and
noted that prisoners were angry and aggressive.

At times, tensions in the HIV wards mounted to such a degree that, in protest, prisoners smeared

doorknobs with their blood, went on hunger strike and threatened to prick staff with syringes

covered with their blood.

The particularities of HIV/AIDS require public health specialists to address issues which formerly

remained on the fringes of the public health discourse and in many countries are not the material

of daily media discussion – ensuring clean needles for drug users; protection of the health of
women and men engaged in commercial sex; and promotion of safer sexual practices, particularly

among adolescent girls.

Some of this health promotion work may conflict with laws and practices in many countries.

46 Academic Year 2025/2026