Numan Afifi of the APCOM Foundation in Thailand put it plainly: "This is not an abstract mood. It is a strategy." The tactics are concrete. First come 'family values' bills (like the draft charter on family, sovereignty and values) and anti-propaganda laws that re-criminalise same-sex relations, sex work and gender expression. Protections that were advancing are being pushed back, said Afifi, who was among the speakers of SHE & Rights session at the 26th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2026) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, organised by Global Center for Health Diplomacy and Inclusion (CeHDI), CNS and partners.
Numan Afifi added that the regressive Geneva Consensus Declaration and the proposed draft African Charter on Family, Sovereignty and Values are being used to water down global health and human rights norms, redefining 'family' and 'gender' in ways that erase the people the HIV response must serve.
Defunding and disinformation starve community organisations while framing LGBTQ+ people and the idea of gender itself as dangerous 'foreign ideology.'
The goal is consistent across regions: to dismantle the rights environment that allows key populations to access testing, treatment and prevention without fear.
Why rights are non-negotiable for ending AIDS
Criminalisation and stigma do not make key populations disappear. They push them away from services. Globally the risk of acquiring HIV is 80 times higher among gay men and other men who have sex with men, 17 times higher among transgender people, 34 times higher among people who inject drugs, and 17 times higher among sex workers. UNAIDS is clear: this risk is driven by marginalisation, discrimination and criminalisation -- not by identity, said Numan Afifi.
He reflected that a young gay man who fears arrest will not walk into a clinic. A transgender woman turned away once may never return. Every law that treats communities as criminal becomes a barrier to the tests, medicines and prevention tools that end the epidemic. When budgets are cut, they are cut first from the community-led services that reach these groups, widening the gap further. In the Asia-Pacific region, PrEP -- one of the most powerful prevention tools -- still reaches only about 2.5 percent of people who need it, even as Fiji, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea report sharp alarming increases in HIV infections.
"When we defend the rights of the most marginalised, we defend the health of everyone," Afifi said. "Rights are not a luxury of the response. They are the foundation." APCOM's demands are concrete: decriminalise same-sex relations, sex work and drug use; protect the rights of transgender and gender-diverse people; fund community-led organisations with sustained, predictable financing that reaches grassroots level; and reject instruments such as the regressive Geneva Consensus Declaration and the regressive draft African Charter.
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