A/HRC/16/2 Recalling World Health Assembly resolutions 62.12, on primary health care, including health system strengthening, and 62.14, on reducing health inequities through action on the social determinants of health, of 22 May 2009, Expressing deep concern that HIV infection significantly increases the risk of maternal mortality and morbidity and that, in countries with high HIV prevalence, AIDSrelated complications are one of the leading causes of maternal mortality, Noting with concern that more than sixteen million children under the age of 18 have been orphaned by AIDS, and that about fourteen million eight hundred thousand of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa, Concerned at the continuing high prevalence of HIV among key populations at higher risk, as defined in the 2011–2015 Strategy of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, endnote 41 (hereinafter referred to as “key populations”), and the need to ensure their unimpeded access to HIV-related prevention, treatment, care and support, Mindful of the importance of ensuring national, regional and international legal environments that ensure universal access to HIV-related prevention, treatment, care and support, including for key populations, Concerned at the instances of multiple or aggravated forms of discrimination, stigma, violence and abuses that affect the enjoyment of human rights and often lead to particular targeting of people living with, presumed to be living with or affected by HIV/AIDS and members of key populations, as well as to increased vulnerability to HIV, and also recalling the importance that States adopt or strengthen programmes or measures to eradicate multiple or aggravated forms of discrimination, violence and abuse, in particular by adopting or improving penal or civil legislation to address these phenomena, Reaffirming the importance of achieving Millennium Development Goal 6 (to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases), and noting that poverty, inequality and food insecurity increase people’s vulnerability to HIV, posing increased risks of infection to populations in every region while at the same time undermining the socio-economic conditions of people living with HIV or those affected by the epidemic, Recalling that stigma and discrimination are major obstacles to an effective HIV response, that discrimination on the basis of HIV status, actual or presumed, is prohibited by existing international human rights standards, and that the term “or other status” in nondiscrimination provisions in international human rights texts should be interpreted as covering health status, including HIV/AIDS, Reaffirming that the full realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all is an essential element in the global response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, including in the areas of prevention, care, support and treatment, and that such a response reduces people’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and prevents stigma and related discrimination against people living with or at risk of HIV/AIDS, Emphasizing, in view of the increasing challenges presented by HIV/AIDS, including apparent trends to enact criminal and other laws that are counterproductive to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support efforts and the ongoing application of HIVspecific restrictions on the entry, stay and residence of HIV-positive people, the need for intensified efforts to ensure universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all in order to reduce vulnerability to HIV, prevent HIV/AIDSrelated discrimination and stigma and reduce the impact of AIDS, Recalling Commission on the Status of Women resolutions 53/2 of 13 March 2009 and 54/2 of 12 March 2010, 74 GE.11-17059