The 22nd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2018) was held in Amsterdam between July 23 and 27. This year’s theme, ‘Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges’, drew attention to the need of rights-based approaches to more eff ectively reach key populations. AIDS 2018 aimed to promote the human rights of particularly vulnerable communities, such as people living with HIV, displaced populations, men who have sex with men, people in prisons and other closed settings, people who use drugs, sex workers, transgender people, women and girls and young people, and to collaborate in fighting the disease beyond country borders.
27 year-old Robbie Lawlor, a HIV activist and a member of ACT UP Dublin attended the conference. “It was so encouraging to see people, including myself, who are most aff ected by HIV take charge and highlight global health inequities to key political stakeholders,” he says. “I left angry, fired up, inspired and ready to keep taking action.”