New UN report takes a stark look at links between sex work, HIV and the law in...

18 October 2012, Bangkok – Nearly all countries of Asia and the Pacific criminalize some aspects of sex work. Criminalization increases vulnerability to HIV by fuelling stigma and discrimination, limits access to sexual health services and condoms. Removing legal penalties for sex work allows HIV prevention and treatment programmes to reach sex workers and their clients more effectively.

These are some of the findings in an unprecedented study issued today by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). The report clearly distinguishes between adult consensual sex work and human trafficking for sexual exploitation.

Video: CCTV interview with JVR Prasada Rao

26 July 2012 – Commissioner JVR Prasada Rao spoke with James Chau on CCTV News during the International AIDS Conference in Washington DC. Watch the interview here.

A Legal Remedy?

How good laws help, and bad laws hamper, the global response to HIV. 24 July 2012 – I was sitting in a hotel in Pretoria, South Africa, and the young woman beside me was weeping. With good reason: Nontobeko Dlamini, from Swaziland, had been sterilized, without her consent, because she is infected with HIV. “My doctor was angry. I had broken his trust when I said I was pregnant,” she said. “Women with HIV are not any point expected to fall pregnant,” she continued. “So I was sterilized. I was the bad woman. I was HIV-positive.”

Bad Laws Hamper Global AIDS Fight

11 July 2012 – Laws should make things better. Sadly, as we stand at the precipice of finally ending AIDS, an epidemic of archaic and insensitive laws is stifling our efforts and making things far worse. The Global Commission on HIV and the Law came together to address this hidden crisis. The Commission’s report, “HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights and Health,” leaves no doubt: it is time to unshackle the AIDS response. Discriminatory laws that criminalize sex work, drug use and same-sex sexual activity create a culture of fear and drive those most at risk away from the very HIV services that could keep them alive. Some laws punish homosexuality with lengthy imprisonment, and others with death.

XIX IAC 2012, Symposia Session – The Global Commission on HIV and the...

24 July 2012 – Thirty years since the discovery of HIV, we know more than ever about the approaches, tools and systems needed to deliver effective HIV responses. At the same time, there have been a range of legal responses in the context of HIV – some have hindered effective responses and some improved the effectiveness and efficiency of HIV responses.