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Uzbekistan

01. HIV care cascade

Institutionalizing effective models of, and processes in, HIV responses in the EECA region to impact the HIV care cascade in the region
ACTIVITIES

REAct monitoring system implementation to capture COVID-19 related rights violations

Implementer
Contact
Period
APH
Nadiya Yanhol
2022
Progress to date

Support of the hotline / phone services within REAct monitoring system implementation in order to provide distant support and legal consultations to women from groups at risk suffering domestic violence and experiencing human rights violations (in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) – Distant legal consulting to avoid face-to-face meetings between client and REActors. With the help of crisis and instant assistance, it was possible to expand the coverage of clients with services (38% of all services in Tajikistan and 45% in Uzbekistan) and reduce barriers to accessing REAct services.

National Contingency Planning

Implementer
Contact
Period
APH
Nadiya Yanhol
2022
Progress to date

Supporting key group populations in a COVID setting “General contingency planning guide developed in the frames of the C19RM is available here.

Guide by APH for Contingency Planning for Key Population HIV Services during COVID-19 and Other Emergencies for North Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Moldova, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in English is available at the link https://aph.org.ua/en/eeca/ in the folders with the names of each country.

Community-led advocacy of elimination of identified critical discrepancies with the WHO prevention, testing and treatment guidelines

Implementer
Contact
Period
100% Life
Daryna Bondarenko
2022-2023
Progress to date

Current testing and treatment protocols analysis is finished in 7 countries (Armenia, Moldova, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine) and recommendations to align the national protocols with the WHO guidelines are provided. The report is available at the link.

WHO has held the analysis of HIV testing guidelines in 6 countries of EECA – Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan. The report is available at the link.

National HIV testing and ART-optimized strategies based on and aligned with the WHO recommendations were developed for 4 EECA countries – Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova.

Community-led advocacy of elimination of identified critical discrepancies with the WHO prevention, testing and treatment guidelines

Implementer
Contact
Period
100% Life
Daryna Bondarenko
2022-2023
Progress to date

Current testing and treatment protocols analysis is finished in 7 countries (Armenia, Moldova, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine) and recommendations to align the national protocols with the WHO guidelines are provided. The report is available at the link.

WHO has held the analysis of HIV testing guidelines in 6 countries of EECA – Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan. The report is available at the link.

National HIV testing and ART-optimized strategies based on and aligned with the WHO recommendations were developed for 4 EECA countries – Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova.

02. Removing HR/gender barriers

Removing barriers to services for key populations to promote quality health interventions based on human rights principles; addressing gender barriers to services
ACTIVITIES

Legal environment assessment on MSM and trans people in 4 countries

Implementer
Contact
Period
ECOM
Yuri Yorskiy
2022
Progress to date

Legal environment assessments for Kyrgyzstan and for Uzbekistan were published.

Developing and launching call for “Gender and HIV” small grants with special eligibility focus on Monitoring situation with human rights of Trans* people

Implementer
Contact
Period
EKPC
Dr. Karen Badalyan
2022-2024
Progress to date

Small Grants Programme with 4 selected projects run by grass-root NGOs in 2022 included:

  • “National Trans Coalition” NGO with the project titled “HIV prevention in Armenia through gender mainstreaming” (Armenia);
  • “The Public Association “Union for Equity and Health” NGO with the project titled “Gender Equality for sex workers” (Moldova);
  • “Rromnjako Ilo” Zrenjanin he Public Association” NGO with the project titled “Check your health – Equality for Trans Roma and Roma women/girls sex workers” (Serbia);
  • “NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION «NASHA DOPOMOGA»” with the project titled “RIGHT TO HEALTH!” (Ukraine).

 

  • The project applicant is the organization “Albanian Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA)” with the project titled “New approach on transforming the spiral of exclusion and marginalization, towards the right of recognition before the law, gender-diverse and reduce the violence in health-care settings for trans persons in Albania”.
  • The project applicant is the “National Trans Coalition” NGO with the project titled “Strategic pathway to remove structural barriers for trans* communities to PrEP and PEP services in Armenia”. The proposed project has been designed to establish favorable conditions for improving access of Trans* communities to PrEP and PEP services in Armenia.
  • The project applicant is the organization “STAR STAR” Skopje with the project titled “Community Mobilization to Mitigate Funding Cuts and Gender Inequality in National HIV Programs for Sex Workers in North Macedonia”. The project is envisioned as a response to the latest developments in North Macedonia related to provision and delivery of HIV prevention services for key populations.
  • The project applicant is the organization “Rromnjako Ilo” Zrenjanin he Public Association” NGO with the project titled “Supporting health wellbeing and safety of Trans and Intersex Roma, sex workers and HIV+”.

REAct (https://react-aph.org/): Monitoring of human rights violations and discrimination against PLHIV and KPs. Responding to such cases through provision or referring to legal or social services to victims and through advocacy actions. In Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Tajikistan, REAct system was initiated within SoS_project#1.0 in 2020, and in 2022 is transferred to national funding, meanwhile APH continues to provide technical support to users. In Ukraine, REAct was implemented in 2019 and is functional within national GF grant. REAct system is supported by APH in Uzbekistan for 2022-2023, in 5 Balkan countries – for 2022-2024, and in Armenia and Azerbaijan – for 2023-2024. At the same time, regional networks ECOM and ENPUD started to use REAct program for documentation in several countries of the region and are supported for 2022-2024 within SoS_project#2.0 grant.

Implementer
Contact
Period
APH
Victoria Kalyniuk
Ishonch va Hayot
Sergei Uchaev
CAAPLA
Zhanara Akhmetova
2022-2023
Progress to date

Cumulatively, during 2022 there were registered 6700+ cases in 13 countries (Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Serbia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan) involving 170+ CBOs, as well as regional networks such as ECOM (in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan) and ENPUD (Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Belarus).

The following publications are available:

REAct system is available and functional at the national level in the following counties. It enables documentation of cases of human rights violations: Albania (45 cases), Armenia (182), Azerbaijan (174), B&H (70), Montenegro (60), Kazakhstan (363), North Macedonia (42), Tajikistan (1155), Serbia (24), Uzbekistan (835). More detailed data of 2023 is available in REAct Regional Digest and REAct website.

Cumulatively in 10 countries, 49,9% of documented cases were responded by REActors, their organizations or through referral to partner NGOs or institutions. During 2023 in 10 countries, there were provided 2162 consultations about human rights, 1022 consultations with professional lawyers. In 168 cases REActors helped to draft simple legal documents, such as complains or statement to police, in 236 cases represented client’s interests in medical facilities, assisted in getting medical services and support, in 336 cases – accompanied the client in the initial appeal to the police. There were at least 20 strategic court cases, and at least 162 cases were used for shadow reports to UN Treaty Bodies.

Decriminalization of HIV and unintended HIV transmission

Implementer
Contact
Period
100% Life
Nadiia Savchenko
2022-2024
Progress to date

100% Life conducted an analysis of the legal environment in Georgia, Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Uzbekistan in order to identify regulatory legal acts that need to be amended to reduce the criminalization of people living with HIV.

During 2023, draft legislative amendments to the regulations in the context of the legal and legislative acts that contribute to the criminalization of HIV in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan were developed. These amendments concern both general and specialized norms.

  • Draft Law “On amendments and additions to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan with regard to liability for human infection with the immunodeficiency virus (HIV)”
  • Legal justification for amending the requirements to the list of professions prohibited for people living with HIV infection. By Order of the Minister of Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan (registered by the Ministry of Justice on 7.05.2014 No. 2581) and In accordance with Article 21 of the Law “On counteracting the spread of the disease caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV infection)” (dated 23.09.2013 No. ZRU-353) it is not allowed to terminate the employment contract, refuse an employment (except for certain types of professional activities provided by the list established by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan).

03. Budget advocacy

Budget advocacy for sustainable services for key populations in the EECA region
ACTIVITIES

Legal framework for financing HIV services from domestic funds – development and approval

Implementer
Contact
Period
SEH
Kateryna Ryzhkova-Siebielieva
2022-2024
Progress to date

Targeted activities were held in all project countries to discuss with national and international, governmental and non-governmental stakeholders the changes needed to enable sustainable and uninterrupted funding of HIV-related activities from national resources. Through targeted advocacy, technical support, and an integrated approach to HIV funding, in 2022 the project team managed to allocate approximately 1,7 million USD at the national level to programs for key populations, using social contracting mechanisms: Moldova – 154,126.84 USD; Kazakhstan – 118,529.33 USD; Kyrgyzstan – 61,000 USD; Tajikistan – 19,200.00 USD; Georgia – 357,000 USD; Ukraine – 931,453.96 USD.

Increasing domestic financing of countries for services to key groups

Implementer
Contact
Period
SEH
Kateryna Ryzhkova-Siebielieva
2022-2024
Progress to date

Targeted activities were held in all project countries to discuss with national and international, governmental and non-governmental stakeholders the changes needed to enable sustainable and uninterrupted funding of HIV-related activities from national resources. Through targeted advocacy, technical support, and an integrated approach to HIV funding, in 2022 the project team managed to allocate approximately 1,7 million USD at the national level to programs for key populations, using social contracting mechanisms: Moldova – 154,126.84 USD; Kazakhstan – 118,529.33 USD; Kyrgyzstan – 61,000 USD; Tajikistan – 19,200.00 USD; Georgia – 357,000 USD; Ukraine – 931,453.96 USD.

Regulation of service packages for key groups

Implementer
Contact
Period
SEH
Kateryna Ryzhkova-Siebielieva
2022-2024
Progress to date

In the reporting period, the Emergency package of services for key and vulnerable groups of the population in the field of HIV, and TB in the context of military conflicts was finalized, including tariffication. On its basis, in 2023, the process of advocacy and promotion of implementation at the level of countries in the EECA region will be launched.

Strategic Brief on Business Continuity (link) and Strategic Brief on Social contracting (link) were developed. In addition, Analysis of Quality of Services Provided in Azerbaijan was held and is available at the link.