GEC launches HIV prevention handbook at EuroPride event with legislators

The Global Equality Caucus has published a new resource for legislators to drive policy action on HIV prevention.

The HIV Prevention Handbook: Best practices for legislators identifies key prevention strategies in the response to the HIV epidemic, pulling together recent data, statistics and case studies to evidence arguments for their implementation.

The toolkit also proposes a menu of policy options for legislators to take forward in their parliaments and in their representations to governments.

The handbook was officially launched at an event in Belgrade, following the conclusion of the EuroPride human rights conference. The event was attended by legislators from across Europe and North America, including Maja Moraçanin MP (North Macedonia), Tamar Kordzaia MP (Georgia), Hanna Katrin Fridriksson MP (Iceland), Senator René Cormier (Canada), and several members of the European Parliament LGBTI Intergroup.

Also in attendance were members of the Serbian Parliament - Radomir Lazović MP, Aleksandar Olenik MP, and Biljana Djordjevic MP - as well as representatives from Serbian HIV organisations including POTENT Beograd, USOP Beograd, and AS CENTAR Beograd.

Attendees heard from Marc Angel MEP, Co-President of the EP LGBTI Intergroup, who spoke about the important role of legislators in HIV advocacy, as well as GEC Director Alan Wardle, who outlined how the handbook can be best utilised by legislators in their work.

Scott Boule, Senior Specialist on Parliamentary Affairs at the Global Fund, also addressed the event via video link to offer a global perspective on the HIV response.

The HIV Prevention Handbook is available to download from our website here. The first edition focuses specifically on Europe but will be followed by additional handbooks that identify strategies tailored for other world regions.

This information will be collated into one online resource, the HIV Prevention Portal, which will go live in December 2022.

GEC’s HIV prevention project is supported by ViiV Healthcare. We are also grateful to the Global Fund for co-sponsoring our event in Belgrade.