Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 23 November 1983. See Doc. 5147, report of the Committee on Social and Health Questions.
- Thesaurus
The Assembly,
1. Noting with concern the spread in Europe of a new disease, namely AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) ;
2. Observing that the origin of AIDS is still unknown, and that, while it affects homosexuals, it also strikes other categories of persons ;
4. Reaffirming its unshakeable attachment to the principle that each individual is entitled to have his privacy respected and to self-determination in sexual matters ;
5. Concerned at the inaccuracy in the information circulated on AIDS by some of the media, whose sole concern is sensational news ;
6. Emphasising that campaigns of this kind establish a link between AIDS and homosexuality, so spreading anti-homosexual reactions,
7. Welcomes Recommendation No. R (83) 8 of the Committee of Ministers and the concern manifested in that recommendation that information on the matter shall be objective, but regrets that it was circulated with an appended document from the United States which did not reflect the situation in Europe ;
8. Approves the prevention measures proposed by the Committee of Ministers, such as that concerning the importation of blood plasma ;
9. Calls on the Health Ministries of the various countries to do their utmost to promote dissemination of complete information on AIDS, and to encourage relevant research ;
10. Calls for questionnaires and literature on AIDS to be worded in such terms as to avoid infringing in any way, directly or indirectly, an individual's independence and privacy ;
11. Urges the media to ensure that no information on AIDS is diverted from its course to become information directed against homosexuals ;
12. Expresses the hope that the governments of the member states will back co-ordinated programmes of research into AIDS.
