An Overview of the Legal Environments for the HIV Response in Participant Countries: Consultant Desk Review

very country has a unique legal environment that will dictate whether and how the HIV response might be incorporated into legislation. New or amending laws should be tailor-made for the specific legal environment that exists.

Already existing in each country is a body of both primary (Laws, Acts and Decrees) and secondary laws (such as Regulations and Orders). The legal environment includes the Constitution (as the supreme Law of the country) and the constitutional protections provided by it.

In preparation for the UNAIDS Pacific Consultation on Legal and Policy Barriers to Accessing HIV Services for PLHIV and Key Affected Populations held in Nadi, Fiji from 17-19 April 2013, the author was commissioned as a consultant to conduct a desk review of the available national laws and legislative policies impacting HIV responses in the participant countries: Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.