At the beginning of the session, Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long, authorized by the Prime Minister (PM), presented the Proposal on the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on the Prevention and Control of Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and the Chairwoman of the National Assembly Committee for Social Affairs Nguyen Thuy Anh presented the Project Appraisal Report.

Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long, authorized by the PM, presented the Statement

The draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on the Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS based on two policies: promoting access to information about people living with HIV and ensuring the rights to access to HIV/AIDS prevention and control services for all subjects.

Discussing on-line about this draft Law, delegates gave their consent to the necessity and scope of the draft Law’s amendment and supplement which were presented in the Proposal; emphasis on the institutional opinion and policy of Resolution No. 20-NQ/TW dated October 25, 2017 of the Central Committee of the Communist Party on enhancement of citizens’ health protection, improvement, and care in new situation, of which, with the goal of "basically ending the AIDS epidemic" by 2030 and the solution to "strengthening domestic resources for HIV/AIDS prevention and control"; at the same time, overcoming the limitations and shortcomings of the current Law, meeting the requirements of HIV/AIDS prevention and control in the new situation, focusing mainly on regulations regarding: expanding the right to access information; concretize and strengthen the right to access HIV/AIDS prevention and control services; guaranteeing payments from the Health Insurance Fund for some services for people infected with HIV/AIDS and participating in health insurance.

The delegates also believed that the draft Law project was complete in accordance with the regulations and requested the Government and the Drafting Committee to continue reviewing and fully evaluate the relationship between the revised contents of the draft Law and the provisions amending and supplementing other relevant laws to ensure that there are no problems and conflicts arising during implemention; receive and explain the inspection opinions of the Committee and the opinions of the deputies to the National Assembly to complete the draft and submit it to the National Assembly for consideration, comments and approval at this meeting, etc.

National Assembly Vice Chairman Uong Chu Luu chaired and concluded the discussion

Concluding the discussion, National Assembly Vice Chairman Uong Chu Luu acknowledged the lively and frank discussion atmosphere; the National Assembly delegates agreed with the Proposal, the Verification Report and various contents of the Draft Law. The documents of the draft Law are complete, carefully prepared in accordance with the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents.

Regarding some specific contents, Mr. Uong Chu Luu said that the majority of the opinions approved by the National Assembly delegates' included stipulating the scope of amendments and supplements to the law project; agreement on the expansion of the audience to access information about HIV-infected people.

Luu proposed the agency to preside over the verifying and the drafting agency to study and absorb the opinions of the deputies to the National Assembly who proposed to supplement the principled provisions on the competent subjects to notify positive HIV test results, as well as to ensure the right to confidentiality of HIV-positive persons.

Regarding the minimum age of voluntary HIV testers specified in Article 27, Luu said that although this content has different opinions, in order to suit the children’s current development, it is crucial to ensure early testing for timely detection and treatment, at the same time enhancing the prevention of HIV transmission; to suggest the verifying agency and the drafting agency continue to thoroughly study the opinions of the deputies to the National Assembly, in order to come up with a reasonable minimum age plan for voluntary HIV testers and report to the National Assembly.

Luu emphasized, the opinions concentratedly addressed by the deputies to the National Assembly already had a clear explanation from the drafting agency. He proposed that the Committee for Social Affairs, the drafting agency and relevant agencies shall study, absorb and fully explain opinions of the deputies to the National Assembly in terms of both content and legislative techniques to revise and complete the project to propose to the National Assembly for approval at this meeting as scheduled./.