Kyiv, 27 June: UNDP and the Ukrainian Parliament today brought together leaders of civil society, government and international organizations to discuss HIV legislation review and harmonization Representatives of UNDP (the United Nations Development Program), the Parliamentary Subcommittee on the legislative support to response to HIV/AIDS, the Ministry of Health, the State Service of Ukraine for HIV/AIDS, the All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV (PLWH), the International HIV/AIDS Alliance and other organizations sat down to discuss the results of an in-depth analysis of Ukraine’s HIV legislation conducted by the UNDP .
UNDP presented the elaborated versions of the Law of Ukraine “On combating the spread of diseases caused by HIV and Legal and Social protection of people living with HIV” (the HIV Law), and the Law introducing changes to legislative acts in view of adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On combating the spread of diseases caused by HIV and Legal and Social protection of people living with HIV”.
At the request of the State Service of Ukraine for HIV/AIDS and other Socially Dangerous Diseases, UNDP had also analyzed the recommendations of the Chief Physicians of all HIV/ AIDS Centers in Ukraine, to ensure that the problem areas and concerns identified by service providers are addressed in the process of legislation review. The engagement of civil society organizations in the discussion assured that the voices of people living with HIV and those belonging to the most-at-risk population groups were also heard.
Elena Panova, UNDP Deputy Country Director thanked members of the Verkhovna Rada’s subcommittee on the legislative support to the response to HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and other socially dangerous diseases. She highlighted the key role of subcommittee head Tatyana Donets, who has committed to developing draft documents and facilitating the adoption of the improved legislation by the Verkhovna Rada.
Source: UNDP Ukraine
