Recently, new wordings of two laws of social character, where a certain role was given to religious organizations for the first time, have come into effect.
The Laws of Ukraine on the Prevention of AIDS and the Social Protection of the Population № 1972-XII of 12.12.1991 has been revised, reports the Institute of Religious Freedom.
The new wording of the law contains a number of new provisions in the list of state guarantees in the area of preventing the spread of diseases caused by HIV.
According to Paragraph 9 of Article 4 of the law, the state ensures educational and rehabilitation work with persons using drugs and psychotropic substances through injections in order to prevent the spread of HIV.
Representatives of public, charitable and religious organizations will be engaged in this work.
Paragraph 18 of that article envisages also participation of various organizations, including religious ones, in the educational work helping prevent the spread of HIV, in providing charitable aid, medical and social services aimed to ensure treatment and prevention of HIV, social protection, support, and care for people living with HIV.
These steps are to be made to ensure access of the mentioned organizations to execute on a competitive basis the state order aimed at rendering medical and social services to representatives of the group at high risk of being infected with HIV and persons living with HIV.
The new wording of the law of Ukraine was passed by the Supreme Council of Ukraine on December 23, 2010, as Law 2861-VI and came into effect on January 15, 2011, after its official publication.