UNAIDS 2011 NGO report on legal environments and HIV responses

The UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) NGO Delegation is pleased to announce the publication of its 2011 NGO Report on legal environments and HIV responses.

Please visit the NGO Report site where you can download the full report and navigate through key findings and information from the report in seven languages (including Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish).

The 2011 Report offers several recommendations to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and its Member States with regards to HIV strategies and related laws and policies. The report and its proposed decision points will be presented at the 29th UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board meeting in December.

The NGO Report finds:

1. HIV-related stigma, as well as a lack of understanding about behaviours and identities that are different from the mainstream, fuel discrimination in society and in the criminal justice system, and creates an environment for punitive, rather than protective, laws.
2. Punitive laws and polices – including criminalization of HIV non-disclosure, exposure and transmission; criminalization of sex between men, sex work, and drug use; and repressive laws and policies that impact women and girls, transgender and intersex individuals and migrants – undermine HIV responses by discouraging both access to HIV-related services and HIV-service utilization.
3. Legal protections for people living with HIV and key affected populations are insufficient or unenforced, and their experience of law enforcement is overwhelmingly negative.
4. Individuals do not know their rights, especially as they relate to punitive and protective laws.

The Delegation requests the Board to:

1. Support anti-stigma and HIV education campaigns designed for general populations, healthcare providers, criminal justice and law enforcement professionals, parliamentarians, and others as needed, in an effort to increase and enforce protective laws;
2. Oppose and repeal laws that criminalize HIV non-disclosure, exposure or transmission, homosexuality, gender variance, sex work and drug use;
3. Foster protective laws and knowledge of protective laws and human rights within the justice system; and
4. Support and promote programmes to know your rights/laws and access justice.

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