A/HRC/16/69 5. Persons with disabilities 23. Few respondents mentioned persons with disabilities and their participation in HIV programmes. Brazil noted that persons with disabilities were wrongly thought not to exercise their sexuality, and that they could thus be disregarded in HIV decision-making. At the Geneva consultation, a representative of the Government of South Africa observed that persons with disabilities were excluded not only from HIV decision-making processes, but also from basic HIV information. Meetings and consultations were held in venues not accessible to persons with disabilities. HIV information was provided in formats not accessible to persons with hearing and visual impairments. Women and children with hearing or sight impairments and other disabilities were at a high risk of physical and sexual violence, but addressing these risks was not a programme priority. E. Lack of access to health services 24. Many of the Member States that provided information for the present study cited greatly expanded care for HIV, especially access to antiretroviral therapy, as the most important human rights achievement in their HIV responses. Nonetheless, respondents and presenters at the consultation pointed out that stigma, discrimination and fear of criminal prosecution kept many people living with and vulnerable to HIV from seeking health services they needed, including HIV prevention and treatment services. Several respondents cited the urgent need to help health workers to be part of the solution to HIV-related stigma in health services rather than part of the problem. UNAIDS cited widespread stigma and mistreatment of people living with HIV in public health services in India and the lack of mechanisms of redress for these abuses. In 2008, the Supreme Court of India had issued interim directions to ensure access to care for people living with HIV at public hospitals. Such judicial remedies appeared to be rare elsewhere. The Government of Mexico emphasized the need to address both HIV-related prejudices and homophobia among health service providers. 25. Several respondents reported that people living with HIV, sex workers, people who use illicit drugs and men who have sex with men were often excluded from health services because they were unable to get health insurance or feared being mistreated by health-care providers. In some cases, people living with HIV could be covered for antiretroviral therapy paid for by donor funding, but might be unable to obtain affordable care for opportunistic infections and other problems. The World Food Programme noted that, although food and nutrition assistance should be part of comprehensive HIV care, it rarely was. 26. At the Geneva consultation, the Director of the International Harm Reduction Association reported that, among the people who use drugs worldwide, half of those who needed access to sterile syringe programmes did not have it, and less than half who need opioid-substitution therapy could obtain it. Quoting from a report issued by the Association in 2010, he pointed out that international donor support for these measures in middle-and low-income countries amounted to about US$ 0.03 per person who injects drugs. UNAIDS noted in its submission that one barrier to expanded services was the ambiguous legal status of needle exchange and the above-mentioned therapy in some countries. The representative of Lebanon at the Geneva consultation reported that moving forward with the much needed opioid-substitution therapy required getting a ministerial decree giving the therapy clear legal grounding. Even when some structural barriers were removed, as in Lebanon, the challenge remained to mobilize resources to provide services at a scale that met demand. 27. The inaccessibility of humane treatment for drug dependency was underscored by several informants. ESCAP, Asia Catalyst and non-governmental organization representatives at the Geneva consultation highlighted human rights concerns relating to compulsory drug detention centres in several Asian countries where people suspected of 10 GE.10-17842