"Research is central to the fight against HIV/AIDS," said Joe Amon, director of Human Rights Watch's HIV/AIDS Program and a molecular biologist by training. "But scientific advances will have little impact if people living with HIV continue to be stigmatized and abused."

Human Rights Watch cited examples from the Asia-Pacific region, where the conference is being held, of children and adolescents living with or at risk of HIV infection being discriminated against, sexually abused and socially marginalized, including instances where hospitals have refused medical procedures for children and pregnant women living with HIV.

Human Rights Watch also called on scientists attending the conference to protest government harassment and intimidation of AIDS activists, as is currently happening in Burma, China and Zambia: "While scientists are able to travel freely to Sydney to discuss the international response to AIDS, activists around the world are jailed and harassed for their work against HIV," said Amon.

Conference delegates should acknowledge that technological advances such as vaccines or vaginal microbicides will have little impact unless they are accompanied by a greater respect for women's rights. "We can not end the AIDS epidemic solely through science," said Amon. "Scientific advances and human rights advances must go hand in hand."

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