Dignity, Freedom and Grace: Christian Perspectives on HIV, AIDS, and Human Rights
Edited by Gillian Paterson and Callie Long
The search for common ground in combatting HIV —
Forty years after the advent of HIV and AIDS, many people around the world living with HIV still endure assaults on their dignity and basic human rights—from stigma and discrimination to denial of legal protection and even medical care.
Bringing together people living with, working with, researching, or personally affected by HIV or AIDS, this volume developed by the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) and its global partners draws directly from on-the-ground experiences elicited from frontline actors in the churches and agencies. Their insights and reflections are always lively, sometimes uncomfortable, and often deeply moving.
Dignity, Freedom, and Grace broaches the truly tough questions faced by those with HIV and those who work directly or programmatically with them. It offers strong, substantive discussions of the meaning of human rights, its relation to the more religious language of church traditions, the contextual wisdom of key populations most at risk for HIV, and the best practices and theological reflection of Christian churches.
Gillian Paterson is a research fellow and visiting lecturer at Heythrop College, University of London. She co-ordinates the Catholic Network for Population and Development. She has worked in the field of HIV and AIDS since the mid-1990s, often with the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance and the World Council of Churches. She is the author of books and articles on faith and health, especially in relation to HIV.
Callie Long is a media development practitioner, journalist, and organizational communicator with a special focus on conflict, health and AIDS advocacy. She is working on her doctorate in the Humanities at Brock University in Canada, researching HIV-related stigma within a framework of trauma theory.
Specs: 168 pages; 6 x 9”; paper; perfect bound; 4-colour cover
Topic: Global Health/Christianity
ISBN: 978-2-8254-1679-2
Price: CHF 20.00; £12.00; €12.00; $20.00; March 2016
Click here to download the table of contents, Preface, Contributors, and Prologue
Order: www.ipgbook.com, www.amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.de
Resources
An extensive resource list is provided in the print edition of the publication, but as links change and new materials become available online, this list will be further updated here. This list, however, does not include resources only available in print.
If you find broken links, or would like to suggest a new online resource, please contact sara.speicher(at)wcc-coe.org.
I. Human Rights, HIV and the Law
The Core International Human Rights Instruments and their monitoring bodies. United Nation Human Rights.
Criminalization of HIV Transmission Policy Brief, UNAIDS, 2008.
Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS Adopted by the General Assembly, United Nations, 2001.
HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights and Health, UNDP, 2012.
Human Rights and the Law, UNAIDS, 2014.
Human Rights Documents, Human and Constitutional Rights resource page.
International Human Rights Law: A Short History, UN Chronicle, June 2009.
The Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Intensifying our Efforts to Eliminate HIV and AIDS, resolution of the United Nations General Assembly, adopted 8 July 2011.
The Right to Health, factsheet 31 by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the World Health Organization.
Ten Reasons Why Human Rights Should Occupy the Centre of the Global AIDS Struggle, in Human Rights and HIV/AIDS: Now More Than Ever.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations.
Universal Human Rights Instruments by Category, Women with Disabilities Australia.
See also:
Africa Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
The Global Commission on HIV and the Law.
II. Religion and Human Rights
Traer, Robert: Religion and Human Rights (portal).
Vorster, J.M.: “HIV/AIDS and Human Rights”, The Ecumenical Review 55.4 (2003): 345–61.
Williams, Rowan: “Human Rights and Religious Faith”, lecture, Ecumenical Centre, Geneva, 28 February 2012.
III. Religion and HIV
Fuller, Jon D., and James F. Keenan: “The Language of Human Rights and Social Justice in the Face of HIV-AIDS.” Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture 8:1-2 (2004).
Manning, Greg: “Coverage for All Who Are Marginalized.” The Ecumenical Review 63:4 (2011), 443–55.
Paterson, Gillian (ed): HIV Prevention: A Global Theological Conversation, Geneva: EAA, 2009.
UNICEF: What Religious Leaders Can Do about AIDS, 2003.
IV. Resources Suitable for Groups
CAFOD, toolkit of Selected Resources for Faith Leaders Responding to HIV-related Stigma and Discrimination, Africa, Asia and Latin America.
United Church of Christ, Our Whole Lives, a faith-based, life-span, age-appropriate, comprehensive sexuality education curriculum.
World Council of Churches - Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance. The following resources are particularly useful for group discussion: DVD on Religious Leadership; My Personal Commitment to Action; HIV Prevention: A Global Theological Conversation, Exploring Solutions: How to Talk about HIV Prevention in the Church; AIDS Related Stigma: Thinking Outside the Box - The Theological Challenge.
World Council of Churches - Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy.
The Lancet, Faith-based health-care, July 7, 2015.
Strategies for Hope “Called to Care” tool-kit of resources. These include: Open Secret: People Facing Up to HIV and AIDS in Uganda (2000); Journeys of Faith: Church-based Responses to HIV and AIDS in Three Southern African Countries (2002); Positive Voices: Religious Leaders Living with or Personally Affected by HIV and AIDS (2005)