HIV and the law: Protecting the rights of people living with HIV in Ukraine Published on Thursday, 19 September 2013 01:23 Aigul Mukanova (in makeup) at a flashmob to raise awareness about human rights in Ukraine, June 2012 [Originally published…
New York, 5 September 2013—Experts this week called for new measures to get costly, life-saving HIV drugs to some 16 million people in developing countries who need them, following calls by a high-level Commission to make them more affordable in poor countries. “While intellectual property protections are intended to provide an incentive for innovation, the evidence shows that excessive protection hinders access to affordable HIV treatment and other essential medicines,” UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark told participants at a meeting convened by UNDP and the UNAIDS Secretariat. Some 30 experts met here this week to discuss ways to advance 2012 recommendations by the independent Global Commission on HIV and the Law on improving access to treatment.
Q: Why do you think it’s important to work on human rights, stigma and discrimination issues in the context of HIV?
Anna Kryukova: Everybody has an equal right to medical care and should be comfortable when applying for medical care. We have to make sure we are comfortable and protected in our country. So, this is very an important issue. It’s important to work with doctors, nurses, and service providers too.
Q: From international experience, when there are human rights violations, people who need access to HIV services don’t have access because either they are afraid to access those services or because of they are drug users, sex workers, or men who have sex with men. What do you think?
AK: Yes, many people encounter barriers while accessing healthcare services because they belong to a vulnerable population that is stigmatized and discriminated against.
Creating Enabling Legal Environments: Conducting National Reviews and Multi-Sector Consultations on Legal and Policy Barriers to HIV Services aims to support country stakeholders including governments, Joint UN Teams on AIDS, civil society partners and others to undertake a review of national laws, policies and practices to enable full achievement of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services, and to conduct a national, multi-sectoral consultation on legal and policy barriers to HIV services for PLHIV and key populations.
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 .