Rights Here, Right Now emphasizes the central importance of protecting and promoting human rights, including the rights of women and girls, as a prerequisite to a successful response to HIV. The right to dignity and self-determination for key affected populations, to equal access to health care and life-saving prevention and treatment programmes, and the right to evidence-based interventions driven by science, rather than politics, are all incorporated in this urgent demand for action.

Rights Here, Right Now emphasizes the location of the conference in Vienna, chosen in part for its proximity to Eastern Europe and Central Asia, a region experiencing one of the fastest growing epidemics that is fuelled primarily by injecting drug use. It also underscores this critical moment in time for the global epidemic – with the 2010 deadline that world leaders set for providing universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support on the immediate horizon. Rights Here, Right Now is a call for leadership, accountability and action.