The World Bank's Global HIV/AIDS Program of Action envisages strong World Bank support for the global response to HIV in several areas, including strengthening national strategies, accelerating implementation, and generating and sharing knowledge. This guide to the legal aspects of the pandemic ("the Guide") will help enhance the institution's contribution. The Guide is not intended only for World Bank staff. Indeed, those who can make the best use of the information collected in this work are national AIDS councils, government ministers, and civil servants responsible for guiding and implementing their country's response to the epidemic. Dealing successfully with HIV/AIDS cuts across almost all areas of government responsibility, and as the breadth of the 65 topics included in the Guide shows, there are many ways in which laws and regulations can either underpin or undermine good public health programs and responsible personal behaviors. The Guide indicates that statutes relating to many areas of human endeavor-from intimate private conduct to international travel-can contribute to stigma, discrimination, and exclusion or, contrariwise, can avoid and help remedy these inequities. Thus, in order to create a supportive legal framework it is important that governments identify and address effectively any gaps or other problematic aspects of their legislation and regulatory systems. Governments are not alone in this task. Many organizations stand ready to assist and, indeed, are already doing so. A prepublication copy of the Guide was circulated to all relevant organizations of the United Nations system as well as to nongovernmental organizations and individual reviewers. Many useful suggestions for improvement have been taken into account and are gratefully acknowledged. We hope that this Guide will prove of significant, practical use to governments and their many partners in the response to HIV.

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