A/HRC/10/47 page 18 47. The Open Society Institute (OSI) highlighted the intersection between HIV/AIDS and violations of the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Based on documented cases of violations, OSI provided information on abuses which include physical and psychological abuses against sex workers, including rape by police and prison officials, demands for sex as payment for medical treatment, and medico-militia raids where doctors and the police forcibly test sex workers for sexually transmitted infections; flogging, chaining, caging, unmedicated opiate withdrawal, verbal and sexual abuse against drug users; confinement of people living with HIV in prisons, pretrial detention facilities, and compulsory drug treatment centres without access to antiretroviral treatment, opiate substitution therapy, condoms and sterile injection equipment, tuberculosis control and treatment, and treatment for hepatitis C; involuntary and prolonged detention of patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis in conditions that lack proper infection control measures; denial of pain medication to people living with HIV; abuse of HIV-positive women in health settings including coerced abortion and coerced sterilization; and the intentional use of painful withdrawal from opiates to coerce confessions from drug users. OSI recommended that special attention be given to the role of torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment in future reports to the Human Rights Council and that the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment consider the linkage between his mandate and HIV in his future reports. 48. The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) provided information on HIV/AIDS and women and girls in prison and drew attention to the fact that in many countries female prisoners are infected with sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. Women and girls are also at risk of contracting HIV whilst in prison due to their vulnerability to sexual violence. Research undertaken in Australia indicated that 89 per cent of female prisoners had been sexually abused at some point in their lives and 70-80 per cent of females in prison were survivors of incest. Research in women’s prisons in Brazil found that HIV affects a higher percentage of incarcerated women than men. QUNO recommended that the same HIV-related services should be available to women and girls inside and outside prison with guaranteed protection from involuntary testing and the conditions secured for confidential, free and informed consent. 49. Oxfam called for better monitoring of confidentiality and a code of ethics on HIV which includes guidance on disclosure of HIV status and better clarity on the opt in and opt out policies around HIV testing, as well as a better understanding of the human rights implications of such policies. The need to protect people living with HIV from criminalization and to ensure that persons vulnerable to HIV and who may be involved in illegal activities (e.g. sex workers and injecting drug users) have access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support was also emphasized. IV. CONCLUSIONS 50. The contributions received for the preparation of this report confirm the central role of human rights in the response to HIV and point to a number of challenges that the international community faces in addressing the human rights aspects of the epidemic. 51. In his report on the implementation of the Declaration of Commitment and the Political Declaration, the Secretary-General noted that substantial barriers remain that reduce access to HIV-prevention services and that 63 per cent of countries report having