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For Immediate Release

Sebelius Must Act Swiftly to Lift HIV Travel Ban upon Confirmation

US is one of only 14 nations that bar entry of people living with HIV or require disclosure for short-term stays

Cambridge, Mass - 03/02/2009

(Cambridge, Mass.) Physicians for Human Rights urges Health and Human Services Secretary-designate Kathleen Sebelius to act swiftly to lift the nation's HIV travel ban on people living with HIV.

Said Pat Daoust, RN, MSN, Director of PHR's Health Action AIDS campaign, "The restrictions denying people living with HIV entry into the United States violate their human rights and place the US among a group of only nine nations that bar entry of those with HIV for any reason or length of time. Congress lifted the statutory ban last summer and now the Obama Administration must finish the job by removing HIV from the list of communicable diseases that prevent entry into the country. It is far past time for the US to join the community of nations whose HIV entry policies are rooted in sound public health practices rather than bigotry and hysteria."

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is an independent organization that uses medicine and science to stop mass atrocities and severe human rights violations against individuals. We are supported by the expertise and passion of health professionals and concerned citizens alike.

Since 1986, PHR has conducted investigations in more than 40 countries around the world, including Afghanistan, Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, the United States, the former Yugoslavia, and Zimbabwe.

  • 1988 — First to document Iraq’s use of chemical weapons against Kurds
  • 1996 — Exhumed mass graves in the Balkans
  • 1996 — Produced critical forensic evidence of genocide in Rwanda
  • 1997 — Shared the Nobel Peace Prize for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
  • 2003 — Warned of health and human rights catastrophe prior to the invasion of Iraq
  • 2004 — Documented and analyzed the genocide in Darfur
  • 2005 — Detailed the story of tortured detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay
  • 2010 — Investigated the epidemic of violence spread by Burma’s military junta
  • 2011 — Championed the principle of noninterference with medical services
                  in times of armed conflict and civil unrest during the Arab Spring
  • 2012 — Trained doctors, lawyers, police, and judges in the Democratic Republic of
                  the Congo, Kenya, and Syria on the proper collection of evidence in
                  sexual violence cases
  • 2013 — Won first prize in the Tech Challenge for Atrocity Prevention with MediCapt,
                  our mobile app that documents evidence of torture and sexual violence

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