The 41-page report, "Positively Abandoned: Stigma and Discrimination Against HIV-Positive Mothers and Their Children in Russia," focuses on the discrimination that these women face, as do their children, many of whom are abandoned to the care of the state.
Russian law bans such abuse, but the Russian government is not protecting women with HIV and their children from widespread discrimination by health care and child care providers.
Widespread fear of people with HIV/AIDS throughout Russia has contributed to the abandonment and indefinite segregation of growing numbers of children born to HIV-positive mothers. The isolation of these children has nothing to do with medical science and everything to do with discrimination and stigma, which are the result of misinformation that the government has done little to reverse.
Today, as Russia's escalating HIV/AIDS epidemic reaches beyond high-risk groups to the general population, a growing number of expectant mothers and infants have been placed in the path of the virus. Since the Federal AIDS Center in Moscow first started recording these statistics annually in 1997, nearly 10,000 HIV-positive women have given birth, the vast majority of whom had their children since 2002.
The culture of fear surrounding HIV/AIDS has led to the women's virtual isolation. Many choose to hide their diagnosis from co-workers, friends and family members rather than face the consequences.
Discrimination is also present at the place where women need the most care: their local gynecological clinics. Instead of educating women about medication they can take to sharply reduce the risk of HIV transmission from mother to child, the doctors at neighborhood gynecological clinics are often ignorant or even belligerent. HIV-positive women interviewed reported being verbally abused by doctors and nurses, or even being denied treatment altogether.
Human Rights Watch called on President Vladimir Putin and the Russian government to address the problem publicly and end discriminatory practices against people living with HIV/AIDS in Russia that violate both Russian and international law.