HIV/AIDS is a serious health challenge, and the law itself is in crisis in responding to this epidemic in the Asia and the Pacific Region. The legal impediments to universal access, which also enhance stigma and discrimination, were discussed at length at the recently concluded 10th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (10th ICAAP) in Busan, South Korea.

Whether it was Dr JVR Prasada Rao, Senior Adviser to UNAIDS Executive Director, or Kay Thi Win, a sex worker from Myanmar, or Jenithaa from Malaysia, or Karyn Kaplan, Director Policy and Development, Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group, all diverse voices univocally agreed that an adverse legal environment is a serious impediment for vulnerable populations of men, women and children and condemned the legal impediments to universal access to HIV treatment, prevention and care, which also enhance stigma and discrimination. 

For 30 years HIV has exposed health and social inequalities across the globe, abetted by a disabling legal environment criminalizing vulnerable communities. More women than men have got infected with HIV during the last decade. Dr Rao gave examples of some repressive laws existing in the Asia Pacific region that fail to protect women and children against violence and exploitation: mandatory pre marital HIV testing laws in China and Malaysia; non consensual abortion and forced sterilization of women living with HIV in Vietnam and Sri Lanka; laws banning same sex relationship in most countries. All these laws impede treatment access and prevent in reaching out to the affected communities with prevention tools.

Karyn made a passionate appeal to reform drug control laws. According to her,  "Here in Asia, where more than half the world’s opiate users live, home to over 16 million drug users and at least 6.5 million injectors, where HIV prevalence among injectors is among the highest in the world, where the HIV epidemic is largely driven by unsafe injecting practices, where less than 10% of heroin injectors are on methadone, and where injectors can access an average of just 2 sterile syringes per month, we also lack 90% of the resources necessary to provide the essential harm reduction services necessary for realizing the right to health. But while resources are a significant challenge, unless and until we address and remove the legal and policy barriers to accessing services for people who use drugs, investing in harm reduction is tantamount to flushing your money down the toilet. No smart investor in harm reduction would ignore the repressive legal and policy environments in which harm reduction services in Asia take place. Strict law enforcement practices, the constant threat of police arrest, violence, and incarceration at harm reduction drop-in centers/methadone clinics and other places where people using drugs receive services  and the failure to respect, protect and fulfil human rights for marginalized groups, collude to undermine and even undo the benefits of all the harm reduction services."

Dr Rao conceded that although the law in books and practice is meant to protect the socially disadvantaged, one of the main reasons for limited impact of global efforts to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS is that the law itself is not responding to the situation. Most countries in the Asia Pacific region have laws that criminalize sex work, same sex relationships and drug use. This has had a profoundly negative impact on the epidemic. Traditional religious laws and practices have further distorted the situation. The Sharia penalty for same sex behaviour may amount to death in some parts of Pakistan, and beating/flogging in many other countries. Very often countries invoke customary religious laws to punish unprotected groups. A secular body like the Election Commission of Philippines invoked the Bible and Koran to justify refusal of registering a political Party of sexual minorities in 2009.

See the original news story on citizen-news.org.