DUSHANBE, October 10, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- Tajik parliament has given the lead in regulating issues related to providing legislative support for measures to counter HIV-infection, Tilek Meymanaliyev, the executive director of the Central Asia AIDS Control Project (CAAP), remarked at a news conference in Dushanbe on October 9 on sidelines of the Third two-day Inter-Parliament Conference of Central Asian countries and Azerbaijan on HIV and AIDS issues that opened in Dushanbe yesterday.  

According to him, by adoption of changes and addenda to the law on countering HIV/AIDS the Tajik parliament has created favorable conditions for solving that problem at the national level.   

Speaking to reporters, Tajik MP Jumaboy Sanginov said that the amendments adopted on October 2 2008 include recurrence of adoption of the national HIV/AIDS programs.  According to him, one of the most important amendments made to the law is removing the provision on deportation of HIV-infected, in particular labor migrants.   

The conference that has brought together parliamentarians of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan as well as representatives of republican AIDS centers and representatives of other governmental, non-governmental and international organizations working in the field of HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment to discuss the legislative support for measures aimed at HIV infection counteraction as well as the priorities of interregional cooperation is concluding today.     

The conference is expected to result in adoption of the resolution on results of the Third Inter – Parliament conference of Central Asian countries and Azerbaijan on HIV and AIDS issues.