Legal Expert Consultant

Studies in many countries have shown that HIV is a major health problem in prisons around the world and HIV prevalence among prisoners globally is substantially higher than in the general population. Detainees in either prisons or pre-trial detention centers may have contracted HIV prior to their detention or imprisonment but it is clear that custodial settings expose individuals to behaviours and events that increase risk and vulnerability to communicable diseases including HIV, TB, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C. Documented HIV risk behaviours in prison settings in South East Asia include tattooing, injection of drugs, penile modification, unprotected sex and rape. Furthermore, HIV prevention services and tools such as condom provision, drug treatment for opiate dependence, sterile injection equipment or tattooing paraphernalia are often unavailable or difficult to access in prisons. Once released, former detainees can transmit infectious diseases, including HIV, to other people in the community through unprotected sex and unsafe injection practices. In view of the above, there is a clear need to provide HIV education, prevention, care and treatment within the prison system to minimize risk of transmission of HIV within prisons as well as in the community.

UNODC, a co-sponsor of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), provides technical assistance to countries in the area of HIV/AIDS in accordance with the relevant resolutions and decisions by the United Nations General Assembly (GA), the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) and the Programme Coordinating Board of UNAIDS (PCB). As the UNAIDS convening agency for drug use and HIV, and for prisons and HIV, UNODC, together with other UNAIDS cosponsors, national and international partners, assists countries to achieve universal access to comprehensive HIV services for people who use drugs and in prison settings.

In particular, UNODC’s global HIV/AIDS programme supports countries in reviewing and adapting the policy and legislative environment, building the capacity of national and local partners in developing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating large - scale evidence based HIV programmes in the community and in closed settings.

Global programme "HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support for people who use drugs and people in prison settings" (GLOG32) and Project “HIV prevention, care, treatment and support in prisons including pre-trial detention centers in Vietnam” (VNMK16), a partnership between the Ministry of Public Security and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), aim at supporting the development and implementation of effective national responses to HIV, including strengthening harm reduction services in prisons in Vietnam.

Over the past several years, the Government of Vietnam has been expanding access to HIV prevention, treatment and care services for PWID. There is increasing recognition of the role of harm reduction services in controlling HIV among PWID. As the proven benefits of opioid agonist maintenance in prisons include less injecting drug use while in prison, reduced risk of transmission of HIV and other blood-borne viruses, increase in uptake of treatment on leaving prison, reduction of rates of return to prison (WHO,2009), the Government aims to provide OST services in prisons on pilot basis in the coming time.  In this context, technical assistance to the government in development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for implementing methadone in prisons in Vietnam is provided to support this work.

Find the ToR and sample of Financial Offer for more details.

Deadline for Submissions: 5.00 p.m., 12 June 2014

Address for Applications:

Recruitment for Legal Expert Consultant
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
5th Floor- Machinco Building – 444 Hoang Hoa Tham, Tay Ho, Ha Noi
Email: [email protected]