On the occasion of World AIDS Day 2010, the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Dr Theo-Ben Gurirab, who is also the Speaker of the National Assembly of Namibia, made the following statement:
“For more than 20 years, World AIDS Day has served to remind us that HIV and AIDS are still with us. There is much that remains to be done to curb it. On my own continent, and in Sub-Saharan Africa in particular, power imbalances, harmful social gender norms, gender-based violence and marginalization make women and girls particularly vulnerable to the HIV infection and limit their access to information and HIV services. This is a matter of deep concern to African countries, which have more than 2 million children living with the virus and more than 15 million orphaned by AIDS.
Reaching the Millennium Development Goal on HIV and AIDS and reversing the spread of the epidemic by 2015 will mean access to HIV services on a much bigger scale than what is available now. It also means taking measures for the full enjoyment of human rights by all, including people living with HIV. Political leadership from within parliaments is crucially important here.
Another question that causes me concern is that there are still laws that criminalize the behaviour of the people most affected by HIV. The punishments meted out by the law scare people away from having themselves tested and threaten to nullify years of prevention work.
Some countries also have laws that make transmission of the HIV virus a criminal offence. There is no sound reason to believe that applying criminal law to HIV transmission will either ensure that justice is done or prevent transmission of the virus. Rather than imposing morally-based criminal prohibitions, parliaments should aim at making their laws evidence-based. In practice, this means legal provisions for things like HIV-related education, sexual and reproductive health needs, voluntary testing and counselling, protection of vulnerable groups, provision of condoms, opioid substitution therapy and needle and syringe exchange programs to injecting drug users.
On this World AIDS Day, I call on parliaments to review their laws and use them to support efforts to stop the spread of HIV. A strong involvement of parliamentarians at both policy and constituency levels is more necessary than ever. The IPU remains committed to playing a leading role in a stronger legislative response to HIV and AIDS."
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