Burma and Cambodia: Human rights, social disruption, and the spread of HIV/AIDS

The debate around the issues raised by HIV/AIDS and human rights has largely focused on the protection from rights violations of individuals or groups affected by the disease. The relationship between political and social conditions where human rights abuses are frequent and the spread of HIV infection has been less studied. Two countries in Southeast Asia, Burma and Cambodia, are currently undergoing serious and uncontrolled epidemics of HIV; both are marked by political cultures of state violence and corruption, chronic civil war and insurgency, and widespread human rights violations. This article attempts to investigate associations between rapid HIV spread and political and social crises, using Burma and Cambodia as case studies. The climate and context of rights abuses are seen as significant factors of national vulnerability to the epidemic spread of HIV/AIDS.