Antoinette is a widow who has been living with HIV/AIDS for some years now in Benin . The death of her husband saw her educating her six children with dignity in an increasingly difficult environment. Her rights and those of her children are often violated. On a daily basis, she faces all sorts of stigmatization and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS.

The situation has brought on her untold hardship. She lost her job and was denied access to her husband's property. Penniless, she can no longer cater for herself. Her life, although difficult prior to her illness, has now become a living hell. In Benin , and as in a lot of West and Central African countries, no specific law exists to cater for the HIV/AIDS pandemic to protect the rights of people like Antoinette.

In a bid to face this legal void, the AWARE-HIV/AIDS Regional Project of USAID/WARP, in collaboration with the Forum of African and Arab Parliamentarians for Population and Development, organized a regional workshop for the adoption of a model law on HIV/AIDS in N'Djamena in September 2004. The idea was to make available to the countries a flexible model law that allows them to legislate while taking into account their social, political and cultural environment. This model law, is accompanied by an action plan for its adaptation, adoption and implementation, and constitutes a normative setting, that contains the answers to reconcile the rights and needs of Antoinette in relation to her state of health.

In August 18, 2005, the Benin National Assembly adopted Law 2005-31 on prevention, care and control of HIV/AIDS, less than eleven months after the N'Djamena meeting. Under the coordination and impulsion of the Network of Parliamentarians in Benin for Population and Development, the HIV/AIDS model law has been adapted and adopted thanks to a sustained advocacy involving various partners (the National Assembly, Government, Civil Society and Development Partners). The constant follow-up and efficient lobbying made it possible to introduce this important law.

This was at the initiative of the Parliament and by virtue of an emergency procedure to get a unanimous vote for adoption. The process had been driven with such success that all parties claim paternity of the law, thus creating optimal conditions for the implementation of the Law in the coming months and years.

Now, Antoinette has a specific legal tool that will help her improve her situation. She has a better chance of regaining her lost job as an Administrative Secretary , accessing to her husband properties and her children expelled from school could now return . Thus, less vulnerable, she will care for herself and raise her children better.

But she is already thinking about the situation of her sisters in other African countries who do not yet have this opportunity…