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Indonesia is a major sending country of migrant workers overseas. Indonesian migrant workers are among the fastest‐growing migrant population in Asia. High levels of unemployment in Indonesia, particularly in the current economic condition, together with the relatively low earnings of workers, will continue to encourage Indonesians to seek employment abroad. Migrants come from all over Indonesia, but particularly from South Sulawesi, East and West Java, West Kalimantan, North Sumatra, and East and West Nusa Tenggara.

Between 1950 and 1980, all internal and international migration was forbidden by the Chinese government. Market reform in the 1980s loosened this government control on internal migration and, in recent years, labor migration to other countries has become part of China’s overall economic strategy.

Cambodia is one of the few countries in Southeast Asia with a generalised HIV epidemic. HIV in Cambodia was first detected in 1991. After peaking at approximately 3.3% in 1998, HIV prevalence among the adult population declined to 1.2% in 2003, and further down to 0.9% in 2005. In 2007, the estimated number of people living with HIV was 75,000, down from 120,000 in 2001. AIDS‐related deaths also declined from 14,000 in 2001 to 6,900 in 2007. HIV prevalence among young people (15‐24 years old) was higher among males (0.8%) than females (0.3%).

This report synthesizes data from surveillance, behavioral surveys and published and unpublished research to better understand emerging patterns and trends in the HIV epidemic in Bangladesh. Taking stock of 20 years of experience with HIV in Bangladesh, this report summarizes what is known about the coverage and impact of HIV prevention services, including knowledge on risk and protective behaviors.

Presentation on reducing HIV vulnerability among Injecting Drug Users (IDUs) and their sex Partners. Harm reduction:

• Methadone Maintenance Therapy to achieve 25,000 coverage by 2010
• Needle Syringe Exchange Program to achieve 15,000 Coverage by 2010
• Safe Sex (Condom use) for the HIV+ve and those who have sex with HIV+ve or unknown HIV status partners

The Hong Kong STD/AIDS update is a composite report on HIV/AIDS reporting and STI caseload statistics published 3 monthly. The current issue has the updated information up to December 2009.

The Integrated HIV Behavioral and  Serologic Surveillance (IHBSS) National Dissemination Forum was held on December 11, 2009 at the Heritage Hotel, Manila. The presentation provided data on STI trends, HIV cases, modes of HIV transmission in the Philippines.

The Pacific is a unique and vulnerable region. It spans a third of the world’s surface and accounts for just 0.14% of the world’s population—with a similar proportion of the global burden of HIV. For Pacific countries, even a small number of people living with HIV can translate into high incidence and prevalence rates that can have devastating impacts on individuals, families, communities and economies. These challenges demand greater global attention. Pacific countries are often included in broad Asia–Pacific regional groupings where the magnitude of the problem in Asian countries overshadows the challenges and needs of smaller Pacific countries. Even the more-developed countries of the region are not immune to significant challenges to human development, compounded in recent times by the global financial crisis. These Pacific realities led to the constitution of the Commission on AIDS in the Pacific in October 2007 to examine the current scale of the HIV epidemic in the region. The Commission also examined how the Pacific’s response has changed over the past decade and how this momentum can be strengthened.

The Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) has been facilitating consultations with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its causes and consequences (UNSRVAW) since 1995, following the inception of the UNSRVAW mandate and appointment of the first Rapporteur in 1994.  The theme of the 2009 consultation was 'Violations of Women's Sexual and Reproductive Rights'. Fifty four women, and one man, from twenty one countries in Asia Pacific came together to affirm women’s sexual and reproductive rights as fundamental human rights. In doing so they claimed women's autonomy to make decisions on issues concerning their own bodies and sexuality.

The article examines the extent to which an existing sex work typology captures human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) risk in Karnataka and propose a systematic approach for devising evidence-based typologies. The proposed typology identifies street to lodge FSWs as being at particularly high risk, which was obscured by the existing typology that distinguishes between FSWs based on place of solicitation alone.