In just two decades, AIDS has become the leading cause of death in Africa, and now kills more people worldwide than any other infectious disease. Although current treatments are expensive, and an affordable vaccine in the developing world is many years away, HIV/AIDS prevention programs and activities often remain narrow in their scope, applicability, and impact. A human rights approach to the HIV/AIDS epidemic moves beyond a focus on the individual to address social, economic, and political factors that drive the epidemic, such as gender-based inequalities, poverty, corruption, and government inaction. A rights-based approach empowers affected individuals and communities, and challenges governments to justify their actions (or inaction) to the people they represent and, ultimately, to the global community. We reproduce a fact sheet written by David Patterson for the Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development (ICAD). It sets out a rights-based approach to development, examines the human rights dimensions of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and gives examples of right-based programming in the context of the developing world. It concludes with sources of further information, both in hard copy and on the web.