01/05/10

UNITED NATIONS Lauds US and South Korea for Lifting HIV Travel Ban

The UN on Monday applauded the United States and South Korea for ending their policies banning entry by people living with HIV.

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe praised the actions as "a victory for human rights on two sides of the globe." Citing similar polices still held by some other nations, he called for "global freedom of movement for people living with HIV in 2010, the year when countries have committed to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support."

The US ban began as a Department of Health and Human Services policy in 1987, and in 1993 Congress passed a law that named HIV infection as the only medical condition making non-nationals ineligible to enter the country. Since that year, no major international AIDS conference has been held in the United States.

In 2008, President George W. Bush initiated the process to eliminate the ban, and in October President Barack Obama declared that his administration was "finishing the job."

Obama's move drew praise from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who on Monday also commended South Korean President Lee Myung-bak "for his country's leadership in ending restrictions towards people living with HIV that have no public health benefit."

"I repeat my call to all other countries with such discriminatory restrictions to take steps to remove them at the earliest," Ban added.

After Obama announced the change, the International AIDS Society announced plans to hold its 2012 International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C.

Source: Associated Press:: Edith M. Lederer; Courtesy of the CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention