HIV/AIDS and Human Rights in Russia: Compliance and the Rule of Law

This article examines Russia’s legal response to its ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic. Russia’s international human rights obligations are reviewed and the article then critically assesses the extent to which Russia’s current HIV/AIDS law and practice are consistent with those obligations. The paper demonstrates that most aspects of Russia’s HIV/AIDS laws are consistent with Russia’s international obligations. However, the paper also documents key parts of HIV/AIDS practice in Russia that are seriously inconsistent with both Russian HIV/AIDS law and Russia’s international human rights obligations. This inconsistency between HIV-related de jure norms and de facto practice raises the question of compliance with the rule of law in Russia. Long a political and social culture hostile to the rule of law, Russia has encountered many barriers as it attempts to develop a legal culture governed by the rule of law, its HIV/AIDS practice being only one example. To address this challenge, the article proposes a theory of compliance relating to HIV-related domestic law in Russia that can facilitate the development of a legal culture governed by the rule of law in Russia: the improvement of human rights literacy of people living with HIV and those at risk, and an increased capacity of health care professionals to understand and apply legal and human rights obligations in the delivery of care