Stakeholder views on the relationship between human rights and the law in addressing the HIV epidemic in Papua New Guinea

Community activists, policymakers and researchers have long identified human rights as central to addressing the HIV epidemic. Over the past 10 years, efforts to incorporate human rights into the HIV response have focused on reforming laws which criminalise sex work and male-to-male sex. Laws crimin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inGlobal public health Vol. 19; no. 1; p. 2405976
Main Authors Hegarty, Benjamin, Boli-Neo, Ruthy, Aeno, Herick, Newland, Jamee, Jops, Paula, Pukali, John, Kelly-Hanku, Angela
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Taylor & Francis Group 31.12.2024
Subjects
Adult
Criminal Law
criminalisation
Epidemics - prevention & control
Female
HIV
HIV Infections - epidemiology
HIV Infections - prevention & control
human rights
Human Rights - legislation & jurisprudence
Humans
Interviews as Topic
Laws
Male
male-to-male sex
Papua New Guinea - epidemiology
Qualitative Research
sex work
Stakeholder Participation
Papua New Guinea
criminalisation
HIV
Laws
male-to-male sex
human rights
sex work
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Summary:Community activists, policymakers and researchers have long identified human rights as central to addressing the HIV epidemic. Over the past 10 years, efforts to incorporate human rights into the HIV response have focused on reforming laws which criminalise sex work and male-to-male sex. Laws criminalising sex work and male-to-male sex drive communities underground, making HIV prevention, testing, and treatment efforts more difficult. This article draws on a qualitative study conducted in Papua New Guinea (PNG) which examined stakeholder views on prospects for law reform, the impact of criminal laws on communities, and the role of law reform in addressing the HIV epidemic. While efforts to reform criminal laws related to sex work and male-to-male sex have taken place in PNG, these have been unsuccessful. Stakeholders identified that strategies for addressing criminal laws and the impacts of law reform must be grounded in the PNG context, that there must be material support for community members to engage with criminal laws and human rights, and that dignity rather than HIV should be the justification for law reform.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
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ISSN:1744-1692
1744-1706
1744-1706
DOI:10.1080/17441692.2024.2405976