Toolkit: Scaling Up HIV-Related Legal Services
3. Guiding principles for HIV-related legal services The following principles promote HIV-related legal services that support and respect the protection of human rights and that are ethical and effective.3 It is recommended that legal services actively monitor compliance with these principles (see Section 7). Respect for human rights is a fundamental cross-cutting principle. CLIENT-CENTRED SERVICES The principle of client-centred services is at the centre of legal service provision. It means that the objective of providing legal services is to enable the client to decide, with full information, how she or he wishes to deal with the problem and related issues for which the services or advice are provided. It is the client who should be empowered to decide how to utilize the legal services that the adviser or practitioner makes available. The individual needs, concerns and best interests of the client remain at the centre of everything that the adviser or practitioner does. Legal services will ensure that clients understand all their options so that they can make fully informed, independent decisions regarding their legal issues. This requires listening carefully and respectfully to clients’ instructions. It also requires legal services to ensure that clients are able to communicate their instructions clearly. The assistance of interpreters may be required to ensure that clients can effectively communicate their instructions. NOT-DISCRIMINATION Legal services will not discriminate against clients or staff on the grounds of their HIV status, sex, sexual orientation, transgender status, disability, prisoner status or status as a member of a key population. People providing legal services will adopt a non-judgemental, welcoming attitude towards people living with HIV, people affected by HIV and key populations, including people who use illicit drugs, sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender people and prisoners. PARTICIPATION Legal services will commit to ensuring the meaningful participation of people living with HIV, people affected by HIV and key populations in the planning, management, delivery and evaluation of the legal services programme. GENDER EQUALITY Legal services will promote equality of women, men and transgender people and will ensure that services are accessible, affordable and safe for all regardless of a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
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See also: NGO Code of Good Practice Committee (2004). Code of good practice for NGOs responding to HIV/AIDS. Available at http://www.hivcode.org. 18
CONFIDENTIALITY Legal services will respect individuals’ rights to have their confidentiality protected and will not disclose sensitive personal information, including health status, to family members or other third parties without the consent of the person to whom the information relates.