MEDIA RELEASE
Released By:
Gallus
Recently passed legislation by the Papua New Guinea Government will help to
protect the rights of people with the AIDS virus.
One in 300 people in PNG, an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 people, have the
AIDS virus. This compares with one in 1700 people in Australia.
Welcoming the legislation on behalf of the Australia Government, the
Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs, the Hon Chris Gallus said the
rights of people living with AIDS in PNG will be given greater protection under
the new legislation which was drafted with Australian legal assistance.
'Members of the PNG Parliament are to be congratulated for their
leadership and vision in passing this law,' Mrs Gallus said. 'PNG faces
a generalized HIV epidemic which has the potential to cause enormous social and
economic damage to the country.'
Mrs Gallus said the new legislation would ensure that medical records and
AIDS information are confidential, while still allowing for official tracing of
people who may have been exposed to the virus.
'From now on it will be an offence to deny anyone with the AIDS virus, a
job, promotion, further education or training or admission to a club or
organisation,' Mrs Gallus said.
The legislation will support HIV testing by requiring pre-test information
and post-test counselling and allows for acts of deliberate transmission to be
treated as offences of assault, or acts of unlawful killing under the criminal
code.
'A report commissioned by the Australian Government last year on the
potential economic impacts of HIV in PNG, stated that PNG is facing an AIDS
epidemic with annual increases of between 15 and 30 percent in the numbers of
infected people,' Mrs Gallus said.
Australia's support for PNG's HIV/AIDS Program is a significant
component of our $200 million global HIV/AIDS initiative announced in 2000.
Contacts:
Shane Fairlie (Office of Mrs Gallus) 088 350 0022 or 0408 680 442
Jo Elsom (AusAID) 02 6206 4960 or 0412 804 489