A/HRC/16/69 respondents stated that gender equality was a central goal in the national HIV response. Several noted explicit commitments to Greater Involvement of People Living with or Affected by HIV/AIDS in HIV policy and programme decision-making. In many cases, anti-discrimination provisions in the national strategy were backed up by specific national law on non-discrimination based on HIV status (see paragraphs 10–16 below). These results were similar to the 2010 reporting on the goals of the 2001 special session of the General Assembly on HIV/AIDS, in which 89 per cent of Governments reported that their national strategies included human rights goals and commitments. B. Stigma 5. HIV-related stigma was by far the most frequently cited challenge to effective HIV responses, noted by Governments from all regions as well as by United Nations entities and non-governmental organizations. Respondents consistently linked stigma to two factors: (a) a misunderstanding of the clinical realities of HIV, particularly its mode of transmission; and (b) the association of HIV with “bad” behaviours and persons whose behaviour was regarded as immoral. With regard to the first factor, nearly 30 years into the epidemic there was widespread misperceptions about the virus, its transmission and its clinical impact, even in countries that had invested in information and education on HIV. Several Governments noted that many employers still regarded HIV as a condition that made people dangerously contagious or otherwise unfit for work, causing intolerance, discrimination and fear in the workplace. In its submission, Bahrain, for example, noted that an estimated 45 per cent of the population in 2006 believed that HIV could be transmitted by using the same toilet as a person living with HIV, or by simply touching the person. 6. Many informants reported that people’s association of HIV with injection drug use, sex work, homosexuality and promiscuity entrenched already deeply held stigma associated with these forms of behaviour. Various Governments stated that HIV remained a “gay disease” in the public mind, which reinforced discrimination against men who have sex with men, and further reinforced in some countries by the criminalization of homosexuality. UNAIDS noted that sex workers, men who have sex with men and people who inject drugs were often stigmatized as “vectors” of a deadly epidemic. Some respondents observed that, since many of the populations at risk of infection are also criminalized, and therefore, have been in prison or pretrial detention, they faced many layers of stigma. 7. Relatively few countries reported that their programmic response to stigma was having a sufficient impact. UNDP responded that Tajikistan had undertaken a national study on forms of stigma, the first such survey in the Commonwealth of Independent States. HIV-related stigma was found to be particularly present among health-service providers, police and teachers. Bosnia and Herzegovina mentioned in its submission that over 3,500 health workers and numerous police officers, military personnel and firemen had been trained to address HIV-based stigma in their work. In the most recent round of reporting on the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS (see paragraph 3 above), 90 per cent of countries reported planning programmes designed to reduce stigma linked to HIV, but less than half of them had allocated a budget to support the implementation of the programmes. C. Discrimination 8. According to 2010 reporting on the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, 73 per cent of countries report having laws that prohibited HIV-related discrimination, as was reflected in national responses to the present study. The Government of the Republic of GE.10-17842 5