UNODC and HIV

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), a cosponsor of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), is the lead agency in the UNAIDS family for HIV/AIDS prevention and care among injecting drug users and in prison settings. UNODC is also responsible for facilitating the development of a UN response to HIV and AIDS associated with human trafficking. The focus of UNODC's HIV/AIDS work is to assist countries in implementing large-scale and wide-ranging interventions to prevent HIV infections and in providing care and support to people living with HIV and AIDS.

 

UNODC is mainstreaming HIV/AIDS into its activities globally and at regional and country levels, and is helping countries and civil society organizations to develop and implement comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention and care programmes for injecting drug users.

 

UNODC also provides support to countries in developing and implementing HIV/AIDS prevention and care programmes in prison settings. This includes pre-trial detention centres and closed institutions for juveniles in conflict with the law. The Office is the custodian of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and assists countries in implementing international standards and UN resolutions that demand that all inmates have the right to receive health care, including HIV/AIDS prevention and care, without discrimination and equivalent to those available in the community.

 

In addition, UNODC is strengthening the ability of countries to provide essential HIV/AIDS prevention and care services to persons vulnerable to human trafficking.

 

Young people and women who are also injecting drug users and/or in prison settings and/or persons vulnerable to human trafficking are among the most vulnerable groups within UNDOC's mandate, and specific interventions are being put in place to help protect these people.

What is being done about it?

One of the most important lessons learned from two decades of HIV/AIDS is that prevention and care interventions need to be comprehensive and multi-sectoral to address the needs of often very diverse vulnerable populations. Projects using single and stand-alone interventions have little impact on the epidemics. Prevention and care have to go hand-in-hand, and large-scale initiatives, such as seen in the recent UN Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS, set the example.

To reverse the trends of existing HIV/AIDS epidemics and to prevent a new wave of epidemics, it is essential that interventions are comprehensive, evidence-informed and scaled-up immediately. There is no time to lose and no need for pilot projects for injecting drug users and in prisons. Only if the majority of vulnerable people are reached with services can an epidemic be prevented, halted and potentially reversed. UNODC, therefore advocates that comprehensive and large-scale interventions be an integral part of national HIV/AIDS frameworks.



UNODC: Responding in countries

UNODC's HIV team comprises more than 60 staff members in 28 countries. A team based at the Vienna headquarters supports the work of advisers posted in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, South and South-East Asia, Africa and in Latin America and the Caribbean.

 
Eastern Europe
and
Central Asia
  • Azerbaijan
  • Kazakhstan
  • • Kyrgyzstan
  • • Lithuania (Baltic countries Office)
  • Latvia
  • • Romania
  • Russia & Belarus
  • • Serbia
  • • Tajikistan
  • • Turkmenistan
  • • Ukraine & Moldova
  • • Uzbekistan (Regional office for Central Asia)
 
South and
South-East Asia
  • • Bangladesh
  • • China
  • • Indonesia
  • • Iran
  • • Myanmar
  • • Nepal
  • • Pakistan
  • • Thailand(South East Asia & Pacific Region Office)
  • • Viet Nam
 
Africa
  • • Egypt (Middle East and North Africa Region Office)
  • Kenya (East Africa Region Office)
  • South Africa (Southern Africa Region Office)
  • Namibia
  • Zambia
  • Swaziland
  • Mozambique
Latin America
and the Caribbean
  • • Argentina (South Cone countries Region office
  • • Brazil
  • • Costa Rica

 



UNODC: A UNAIDS co-sponsor since 1999

UNAIDS brings together in the AIDS response the efforts and resources of ten UN system organizations. Based in Geneva, the UNAIDS secretariat works on the ground in more than 75 countries worldwide.

Established in 1994 by a resolution of the UN Economic and Social Council and launched in January 1996, UNAIDS is guided by a Programme Coordinating Board with representatives of 22 governments from all geographic regions, the UNAIDS Cosponsors, and five representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including associations of people living with HIV/AIDS.

The ten UNAIDS cosponsoring organizations are:

The Cosponsors and the UNAIDS Secretariat comprise the Committee of Cosponsoring Organizations , which meets annually.