Access to Medicines

Overview

The need for global, equitable access to medicines is urgent. Too many people in developing countries are dying because medicines are not available at prices they can afford and health agencies have limited budgets to pay high prices for brand-name drugs. People die because they cannot afford to buy life.

Our work focuses on laws and policies that affect access to antiretroviral and other medicines, such as patents rules in international trade agreements and domestic legislation regulating the price of medicines.

This includes ensuring access to

  • comprehensive care, treatment and support for people living with HIV;
  • diagnostic tools (such as HIV testing kits), antiretroviral treatment, and other medicines; and
  • other kinds of health and support services, including treatment for people with immune systems weakened by HIV, sexual and reproductive health services, addiction treatment, and mental health services.

Learn more:

PublicationsNews

The Most Vulnerable Suffer: Access to social and medical assistance for people living with HIV and disabilities

The Access to social and medical services for persons with disabilities living with HIV study was carried out in May and June 2022 with the objective of identifying barriers and complexities for people living with HIV and disabilities in Russia during the coronavirus pandemic and at the outset of the war in Ukraine. Russian version:

Rights Within Reach: Strategic Plan 2022-2027

The HIV Legal Network promotes the human rights of people living with HIV or AIDS and other populations disproportionately affected by HIV and criminalization, in Canada and internationally. In 2021, we undertook a planning process that would shape the strategic goals and priorities for the organization’s next five years (2022-2027). To do this, we sought … Read more

Rights Within Reach: Strategic Plan 2022-2027, Executive Summary

In 2021, the HIV Legal Network undertook a planning process that would shape the strategic goals and priorities for the organization’s next five years (2022-2027). To do this, we sought the input of a broad range of stakeholders, from partner organizations to people living with and affected by HIV and criminalization, to staff. All identified … Read more

Respect, Protect, Fulfill: Supporting the HIV Legal Network

Respect. Protect. Fulfill. You can help challenge wrongs, advance rights, and transform lives. Denied basic healthcare. Criminalized and vilified for love. Unfairly targeted by police. These abuses, and more, are too often the experience of people living with HIV and of communities affected by HIV. At the HIV Legal Network, our mission has always been … Read more

A Moment of Breakthrough - Annual Report 2020-2021

A Moment of Breakthrough: Annual Report 2020-2021

Seizing the moment to push for concrete and lasting change.

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Canada Must Take a Human Rights-Based Approach to HIV Self-Testing

On International Testing Week, more than 40 organizations from across Canada sign statement of support This statement can be attributed to the HIV Legal Network, HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario and the Canadian AIDS Society. Toronto, ON (November 23, 2023) – Today, more than 40 health and human rights organizations across the country have … Read more

MEDIA STATEMENT: WORLD AIDS DAY 2021: FORTY YEARS OF HIV, FORTY YEARS OF PROGRESS

WORLD AIDS DAY 2021: FORTY YEARS OF HIV, FORTY YEARS OF PROGRESS The following can be attributed to the HIV Legal Network.   November 30, 2021 – Toronto – Tomorrow is World AIDS Day — a day to reflect on the current state of HIV and AIDS in the world, where we started, and how … Read more

Human rights advocates eye legal action against Canadian, German, Norwegian and UK governments over global COVID vaccine inequality

Human rights advocates eye legal action against Canadian, German, Norwegian and UK governments over global COVID vaccine inequality Coordinated legal efforts call on “recalcitrant” governments to support proposed waiver of COVID-related intellectual property monopolies at the WTO 25 November 2021 Human rights lawyers have threatened legal action against the German, Norwegian, and Canadian governments today … Read more

Statement: Religious beliefs must not interfere with patients’ rights to accessible health care

The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, the Canadian Professional Association for Transgender Health (CPATH) and the HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario (HALCO), are jointly intervening in a landmark case before the Court of Appeal for Ontario regarding whether doctors can put their personal religious beliefs ahead of patients’ rights to health care.

As Battle Over NAFTA Investor Protections Heats Up, Trinational Coalition Delivers 400,000 Petitions Demanding Elimination of Corporate Rights and Tribunals

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 11, 2017 – Growing public opposition to the expansive corporate privileges at the heart of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took centre stage as the fourth round of NAFTA talks began today in Washington, D.C. U.S., Mexican and Canadian civil society organizations delivered more than 400,000 petitions demanding that NAFTA’s … Read more

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