Thailand’s journey: Building trust, reducing barriers and strengthening the HIV response

November 30, 2025

Young cadets from the Royal Thai Police Academy participate in a unique internship programme where they spend time with the non-profit organization SWING (Service Workers IN Group), gaining firsthand insight into the realities and challenges faced by sex workers. Photo: SWING.

Across Thailand, many people recall the first time they stepped into a clinic, a community centre or a counselling room to seek support. There could be a moment of hesitation, a glance around the room, a pause to see whether it felt safe. For some, in earlier years, fear of stigma and discrimination or uncertainty about how they might be treated made it harder to take that first step.

These lived experiences shaped an important realization that, for Thailand’s HIV response to reach everyone, services needed to feel safe for everyone. That insight became a foundation for the progress Thailand has made over the past 15 years, progress built through partnership, dialogue and a commitment to inclusion.

Long before new laws were drafted or national frameworks strengthened, Thailand’s HIV response grew from community leadership. Peer groups across northern provinces helped neighbours navigate care, counter misinformation and build confidence in treatment.

These stories, later echoed in UNDP-supported stigma and discrimination research, revealed patterns that statistics alone could not capture. They reinforced a central understanding: health systems are strongest when people trust them.

In 2011, Thailand joined governments and civil society from across the region at the Asia–Pacific Regional Dialogue of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law. Together, they examined how laws, policing and administrative rules shaped people’s ability, or inability, to access care.

For Thailand, the dialogue sharpened a direction already emerging at home – a supportive legal and policy environment is essential for an effective, people-centered HIV response. It also provided momentum for reforms that brought inclusion, trust and access to the forefront of national efforts.

One of Thailand’s most distinctive contributions came in the years that followed. Beginning in 2013, the Royal Thai Police, the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Public Health, civil society and UNDP launched a training programme for police officers across the country.

The aim was simple: strengthen understanding of HIV, improve communication with communities and support policing approaches that make it easier, not harder, for people to seek care. Over time, officers, community members and health workers described strong relationships and more open dialogue. Better understanding helped reduce hesitancy in reporting violence, improved referral pathways and increased people’s confidence in engaging with services.

Thitiyanun Nakpor, Director of Sisters Foundation. Photo: Sisters Foundation.

“The training to sensitize law enforcement officers has strengthened a sense of safety that our community has long needed. We see more respectful interactions, faster referrals and greater confidence among trans people and sex workers in reporting violence and accessing services. This shift shows how meaningful engagement between authorities and communities can reduce fear and create a more supportive environment for trans community and LGBTI sex workers,” said Thitiyanun Nakpor, Director of Sisters Foundation.

As community-level progress grew, Thailand’s parliament increasingly embraced inclusive public engagement. With UNDP’s support, parliamentary committees invited community groups, health advocates and young people to discuss issues ranging from HIV to gender equality to the broader Sustainable Development Goals. These conversations made equality and non-discrimination part of routine legislative work, not only in moments of national debate, but in everyday policy work.

Surang Janyam, Director of SWING Foundation. Photo: SWING.

“The momentum toward decriminalizing sex work and developing a labour ministerial regulation is giving sex workers a clearer path to protection and dignity. Working with UNDP, the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand and the Ministry of Labour has shown that when sex workers are recognized as workers, practical safeguards become possible. These efforts lay the groundwork for laws and policies that respect rights, improve safety and affirm sex workers’ access to rights on the same basis as those in other professions,” said Surang Janyam, Director of SWING Foundation.

This shift matters. When people see themselves reflected in lawmaking processes, they are more likely to seek services, participate in governance and trust institutions.

Thailand’s HIV response remains one of the region’s strongest not only because treatment is accessible, but because the country has steadily built people-centered systems, strengthened by community-led approaches, where individuals can seek care with confidence and respect.

And in every province, every clinic, every committee room, the shift can be seen in small but tangible ways – someone who enters without hesitation, someone who stays for counselling, someone who chooses to return. The work continues. But the path is clearer now, toward a Thailand where trust and inclusion are built into every part of the health system and where no one is left behind.