HIV/AIDS- related stigma and discrimination: a conceptual framework and an agenda for action

This paper argues the need for a new way of thinking about stigma and discrimination that acknowledges the processes that cause it and addresses them. It suggests a conceptual framework in which stigma and discrimination are seen as social processes designed to produce and reproduce inequalities and maintain social control, rather than as individual actions. It argues that under this framework there is a need for new approaches to research and for programme developments and interventions that engage societies, communities and people who experience stigma and discrimination, while also acknowledging that this needs to be accompanied by laws and policies that protect the rights of people living with HIV and those affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic