June 25, 2010GENEVA (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) -- The United Nations launched a commission Thursday to investigate punitive laws that it says harm global efforts to respond to the decades-old HIV epidemic.
The commission will "help restore the dignity of people and help us remove bad laws and save the lives of people," the chief of the UN's Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS, Michel Sidibe, told reporters in Geneva.
Sidibe said 86 countries have "homophobic laws" that force people vulnerable to contracting the disease into hiding, while 52 nations have rules that limit the movement of people with HIV/AIDS.
Other laws, such as those criminalising transmission or exposure as a carrier, push people to not get tested for HIV -- the virus that causes AIDS -- and actually help spread the disease, UN agencies said.
These "negative legal environments undermine HIV responses and punish, rather than protect, people in need," a UN statement said.
Helen Clark, the former prime minister of New Zealand and current head of the UN Development Programme, said the health and law experts on the commission will be "asked to focus on the most challenging issues" related to the virus.
"Every day we see stigma, in all forms, bearing down on men and women living with HIV/AIDS," Clark said, adding later that "we need rational responses which shed the yoke of prejudice and stigma."
Laws pertaining to drug users, sex workers, homosexuals and transgender individuals will all be "central to the commission," Clark said.
She called for legislation that would "protect and promote the human rights" of those vulnerable to HIV and people living with the disease.
The commission, which was assigned an 18-month mission, will produce a final report by the end of next year.
Recent data has shown that in the first decade of this millennium, new HIV infections have decreased by 17 per cent globally and more people have had access to treatment, though the poorest were often going without lifesaving drugs.
The UN has in recent months noted law changes in China, South Korea and the United States, which reduced limitations on the movement of people with HIV. The new rules more closely fell in line with what international health agencies have been demanding.
Copyright 2010 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
