Travel Restrictions
At the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, when AIDS was still a little-understood disease, governments often took actions that were not beneficial to the health crisis in general, nor the people affected by it. One of these initiatives - travel restrictions were put into place to slow or altogether stop people living with HIV from traveling into countries with the restrictions. Over 20 year after the restrictions were originally implemented, many countries have eliminated these inappropriate restrictions after a broad consensus from the public health community agreed about their ineffectiveness and discriminatory nature. In spite of this, 74 countries still have some form of HIV specific travel restrictions, and 12 countries ban HIV positive people from entering the country for any reason or length of time.
Travel restrictions are important to universal access for many reasons. Beyond the violations of their basic human rights, people living with HIV who are restricted from traveling are not afforded the same rights of universal access to treatment, care and support. Further, due to the advances of universal access, the costs related to treatment can no longer be an argument for restricting those traveling.
Within this section you will find the latest information about the campaign to eliminate travel restrictions.
Click below to download Denied Entry: Denying entry, stay and residence due to HIV status - 10 things you need to know
Sign on: Civil Society Letter to Countries that Impose Travel Restrictions
We invite you, in advance of the UN high-level Meeting on AIDS in New York from 10-11 June, to sign on to a letter to the UN missions and Heads of State of countries that impose travel restrictions on people living with HIV.
As members of civil society we condemn such restrictions as discriminatory and in contradiction to the commitments made through the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the 2006 Political Declaration. We urge governments that continue to impose travel restriction on people living with HIV to lift these, whether short or long-term.
To sign on to the letter, please send the name of your organisation and country to universalaccess2010@icaso.org before 5 June. ICASO will also be collecting signatures during the civil-society pre-meeting taking place the day before (9 June) of the high-level meeting in New York.
Civil Society Task Force for 2008 HLM on AIDS
Below you will find an key messages pertaining to HIV-related travel restrictions developed by the Civil Society Task Force for the 2008 UN High Level Meeting on AIDS
Travel Restrictions in the News
Within this section you will find statements, press releases and news stories relating to travel restrictions.
EAA release travel restriction resource guide
The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) has released a resource guide to assist people of faith at community level to understand the issues around HIV-related travel restrictions and take action. The information and action ideas it presents can provide relevant and useful tools for anyone who wants to learn and campaign against such restrictions.