UNDP and the National People's Congress Work Together to Build an Enabling Legal Environment
BEIJING, Nov. 30 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Education, Science, Culture and Public Health Commission of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges (CICETE) have signed a flagship programme today to strengthen a harmonized legal environment for a successful coordinated response to HIV and AIDS in China.
(Logo: http://www.prnasia.com/xprn/sa/20061107113358-34.jpg )
"The launching and implementation of this programme will help build an enabling legal and policy environment to combat HIV and AIDS. It will enhance the implementation of legislation and policy at all levels and is significant in the overall AIDS response in China," said Mr. Li Honggui, Vice-Minster level member of the Education, Science, Culture and Health Commission of the National People’s Congress.
The 3-year "Strengthening an Enabling Legislative Environment to Respond to AIDS in China 2007-2010" programme aims to increase the cross-sector leadership capacity of 500 provincial and local level legislators across five provinces to support a harmonized legal environment for a sustained and coordinated response to AIDS.
In addition, this new Programme will review and provide recommendations to harmonize multi-sector laws and regulations relating to HIV and AIDS at the national level, and will assist strengthening provincial legislation.
In his World AIDS Day message this year, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wrote, "AIDS is a disease unlike any other. It is a social issue, a human rights issue, an economic issue. It does to society what HIV does to the human body -- reduces resilience and weakens capacity, hampers development and threatens stability."
He went on to emphasize that "leadership" at all levels, to fully understand the social and economic dimensions of the epidemic is key to "getting ahead of the epidemic".
Since 2006, China’s national policy and legal environment has been strengthened with the enactment of two national policy initiatives -- Regulations on AIDS Prevention and Treatment (2006) and the National Action Plan for HIV/AIDS Containment, Prevention and Care in China (2006-2010).
"At the national level, China has done an excellent job in developing policies and legislation to support its efforts to respond to AIDS," stated Subinay Nandy, UNDP China Country Director. "However, more work remains to translate into effective and timely local level action."
"The UN system, through the UN Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS in China (2007-2010), in partnership with government and multi sector partners, will increase its support of China’s national AIDS response; and as this programme demonstrates, hopes to focus more of our expertise and resources at the local level," he added.
Strengthening leadership capacity of local legislators and leaders and contributing to cross sector coordination are widely recognized as vital to achieving an appropriate and harmonized legislative framework. This will enable and support an improved and full implementation of HIV legislation and interventions.
"Fighting HIV is about leadership. Advances cannot be achieved without committed leaders where it really counts, namely at the field level. We need to take the response to HIV to provincial and county levels and translate policies into action. This is what we hope this project can do," said Bernhard Schwartlander, UNAIDS Country Coordinator.
It will also support policy impact studies to identify and address cross sector issues and assist in creating and strengthening the legal environment to mitigate the socio-economic impacts of AIDS.
