Dignity denied: violations of the rights of HIV-positive women in Chilean health facilities

This report, published by the Center for Reproductive Rights and Vivo Positivo, describes the significant barriers to quality health care, including reproductive health care, that HIV-positive women in Chile face. The experiences of the women interviewed in this report, along with anecdotal reports, indicate that:

• the practice of coercive and forced sterilisations,as well as other discriminatory treatment in the health care sector, persists.
• although the total percentage of women living with HIV/AIDS has stabilised in the last few years, individual countries, including Chile, continue to see a rise in women's rates of infection.
• social and cultural factors continue to expose Chilean women to a high risk of contracting HIV.
• HIV-positive women in Chile encounter significant barriers to quality, acceptable healthcare, including reproductive healthcare.

In light of the above realities, the authors urge the government to make the full realisation of the rights of HIV-positive women a priority and ensure that the rights of HIV-positive women are respected and protected when these women seek healthcare services.On the other hand, they recommend that civil society organisations hold the government accountable for its failure to adequately protect the rights of women living with HIV/AIDS. Finally, they recommend that organisations financing public and private reproductive health, family planning, and HIV/AIDS programmes should ensure that such programmes are designed to improve healthcare and promote the exercise of women’s rights, and should establish indicators for evaluating these projects, based on the criteria of efficiency, quality, and respect for women’s rights.