Human rights advocates, legal experts and public health leaders have warned that the global fight against HIV is facing an unprecedented challenge from the combined impact of shrinking donor funding and a growing anti-rights movement, threatening decades of progress in HIV prevention, treatment and care.
The warning came during a SHE & Rights session titled "Rising Anti-Rights and Anti-Gender Backlash: Threats to the Global AIDS Response" at the 26th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2026) in Rio de Janeiro. The event was co-hosted by the Global Centre for Health Diplomacy and Inclusion (CeHDI) and the Centre for Networked Solutions (CNS), alongside partners including the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), ARROW and APCAT Media.
Speaking at the session, SHE & Rights Coordinator and CNS Executive Director Shobha Shukla described gender justice as fundamental to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and ending AIDS and tuberculosis by 2030.
"With only 54 months left to deliver on the 2030 targets, we are at a critical crossroads. Whatever progress has been made in the global AIDS response is threatened by the sinister rise of attacks on health and gender rights," she said.
Shukla expressed concern over the proposed African Charter on Family, Sovereignty and Values, describing it as a regressive instrument that could undermine gender equality and the right to health by encouraging governments to withdraw from progressive agreements, including the 2003 Maputo Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa.
She also cited findings from a 2026 study covering 47 countries, which reported an 82 percent reduction in community-led services for sex workers and a 72 percent cut in services supporting survivors of gender-based violence.
"Gender equality is one of the strongest HIV prevention strategies. We cannot end AIDS without gender equality, bodily autonomy and the leadership of women in all their diversity," she said.
Calls to Pause African Union Convention
Legal experts also called for a temporary halt to the ratification of the African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (AU CEVAWG), arguing that the draft requires significant improvements before becoming legally binding.
Mai Aman, Legal Officer at the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA) and a member of the Pause for Purpose campaign, stressed that the movement supports decisive action against violence but believes the current draft fails to provide adequate legal protections.
"Our message is simple and very clear: Pause, listen, strengthen, then ratify," Aman said.
According to Aman, consultations with women's rights organisations and civil society groups were inadequate. Survey findings from approximately 1,500 organisations showed that only one-third were aware the treaty was being drafted before its adoption, while 93 percent reported they had not been consulted.
The campaign also identified substantive legal concerns, including insufficient protections against female genital mutilation, child marriage, domestic violence, marital rape, trafficking and conflict-related sexual violence. It warned that references to "family" and "African values" lack clarity and could be used to restrict women's rights.
"African women deserve more than a symbolic treaty. They deserve a convention that clearly names the violence they experience and creates enforceable obligations," Aman said.
Funding Crisis Deepens HIV Challenges
Representatives from Asia-Pacific warned that declining international funding is worsening the impact of anti-rights campaigns.
Numan Afifi, of the APCOM Foundation in Thailand, noted that although global HIV infections have declined by more than 40 percent since 2010 and AIDS-related deaths have fallen by 57 percent, the epidemic remains far from over.
He said 1.2 million people acquired HIV in 2025, while someone continues to die from an HIV-related illness every minute.
"Just as the response faces an unprecedented funding crisis with deep cuts to HIV programmes all around the world, it is being hit by a second crisis—an organised, well-funded anti-rights and anti-gender backlash. These two crises are not separate. They compound each other," Afifi said.
He warned that laws promoting so-called "family values" and anti-propaganda legislation are contributing to renewed criminalisation of same-sex relationships, sex work and gender expression, pushing vulnerable communities away from testing, prevention and treatment services.
Afifi urged governments to decriminalise same-sex relations, sex work and drug use, increase direct funding for community-led organisations, reject regressive policy instruments and expand access to HIV prevention services such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
"Human rights are not separate from the HIV response; they are the response," he said.
Kenya Reports Severe Service Disruptions
Kenyan health advocates described the consequences of donor funding cuts as already visible on the ground.
Nelly Munyasia, Executive Director of the Reproductive Health Network Kenya (RHNK), said the 2025 USAID stop-work order disrupted HIV treatment, counselling, testing, referrals, community outreach and reproductive health services across the country.
"We saw shelves go dry," Munyasia said, referring to shortages of antiretroviral medicines and family planning commodities.
She reported that a baseline survey conducted across five Kenyan counties in July 2026 recorded increases in unintended pregnancies, HIV infections and reinfections, unsafe abortions and severe pregnancy complications. She also warned that healthcare workers providing abortion care or services to LGBTQIA communities are increasingly facing harassment and arrests.
RHNK Programme Director Dr Edison Oduor called for stronger investment in government-led health systems, integrated sexual and reproductive health services and digital health innovations to improve access for vulnerable populations.
"No single organisation can replace donor funding," Oduor said.
Progress at Risk Across Asia-Pacific
Across Asia-Pacific, youth advocates reported similar concerns.
Sangeet Kayastha, from YPEER Asia Pacific Center, said gains made over the past two decades in HIV programming, LGBTQIA inclusion and domestic HIV financing have begun to reverse following the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent reductions in international support.
In Bhutan, youth advocate Dechen, representing Disability 2030, said programmes established after the decriminalisation of same-sex activity in 2021—including HIV self-testing, PrEP and community health services—are now at risk because of funding shortages.
She said sustained government investment will be essential to ensure HIV prevention remains integrated into national health programmes.
Rights Central to HIV Response
Speakers concluded that protecting human rights is essential to sustaining progress against HIV.
They warned that without continued investment in community-led services, legal protections and gender equality, the global ambition of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 could be jeopardised.
The conference heard a consistent message that human rights, gender equality and community leadership are not peripheral to the HIV response but remain its foundation.
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