Critical human security and HIV/AIDS in Thailand and China: national responses and provincial/municipal perceptions of the challenges for young people

This paper examines global and national responses to HIV/AIDS. The paper adopts a critical human security approach relating personal and community security with emancipatory development. The paper details this approach and relates it to challenges of health security and specifically to HIV/AIDS. The paper focuses upon young people as a particularly high risk population. It addresses these challenges in Thailand and China. The paper introduces an on-going study into HIV/AIDS at community level in Chiang Mai and Kunming. It concludes that, for more effective responses, it is necessary to engage communities in policy development and promote peer-group implementation