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Uganda takes “another step backward” with HIV bill
World Report
Uganda takes “another step backward” with HIV bill
Euan Denholm/X01999/Reuters/Corbis
Uganda recently passed a highly controversial HIV Prevention and Control Act that experts say will set back efforts to control HIV/AIDS in the country. Sharmila Devi reports.
For the report by Amnesty and HRW see http://www.hrw.org/ news/2014/05/14/uganda-antihomosexuality-act-s-heavy-toll
1960
HIV advocacy and human rights groups have condemned the passing by the Ugandan parliament of a bill they say will severely impede the fight against HIV/AIDS as well as stigmatise and discriminate against those with the disease. The HIV Prevention and Control Act includes mandatory HIV testing for pregnant women and their partners, and allows medical providers to disclose a patient’s HIV status to others. The bill also criminalises HIV transmission, attempted transmission, and behaviour that might result in transmission by those who know their HIV status. “This HIV bill is yet another step backward in the fight against AIDS in Uganda”, said Maria Burnett, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW). “It is founded on stigma and discrimination and based on approaches that have been condemned by international health agencies as ineffective and violating the rights of people living with HIV.” Groups including Amnesty International, HRW, and the Health Global Advocacy Project said they would petition President Yoweri Museveni not to sign the bill into law unless parliament removed the provision criminalising transmission of HIV. “For Uganda to address its HIV epidemic effectively, it needs to partner with people living with HIV, not blame them, criminalise them, and exclude them from policy making”, said Dorah Kiconco, executive director of Uganda Network on Law, Ethics & HIV/AIDS. “The President should not sign this bill and instead ensure a rights-based approach, recognising that people living with HIV will prevent transmission if they are empowered and supported.” Since another law that came into force in March—the Anti-
Homosexuality Act—health-care providers have cut back on essential services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people, who also fear harassment or arrest if they seek health care, according to a report by Amnesty International and HRW. Shortly after the Act was signed, Ruhakana Rugunda, health minister, said health services would be provided to LGBTI people in a nondiscriminatory way. But there remained concern about how this would work in practice given that the health ministry had no control over police actions, said the report.
“‘The President should not sign this bill and instead ensure a rights-based approach, recognising that people living with HIV will prevent transmission if they are empowered and supported.’” LGBTI people have faced an increase in arbitrary arrests, police abuse and extortion, loss of employment, evictions and homelessness, and scores have fled the country. At least one transgender person has been killed in an apparent hate crime. Health providers have cut back on essential services for LGBTI people, who also fear harassment or arrest if they seek health care. According to Uganda’s Health Ministry 2012 AIDS Indicator Survey, an estimated 1·5 million Ugandans were living with HIV. There were at least 140 000 new infections annually, including 28 000 from maternal-tochild transmission. Uganda, which has a population of about 34 million, has promoted abstinence-only approaches towards
HIV/AIDS over the past decade. The country had cut infection rates from 18·5% of the population in 1992 to about 5% in 2000, according to UN figures. The current rate is about 7·3%, according to the health ministry. Museveni has been in office for 28 years. Campaigners have accused him of increasingly suppressing democratic freedoms while threatening civil society groups working on issues such as corruption, land, oil, and good governance. Amnesty International and HRW urged the Ugandan Health Ministry to adopt clear guidelines requiring patient confidentiality in all health-care settings and non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. On April 4, police raided the Makerere University Walter Reed Project, a US-funded HIV research and treatment centre. The police claimed the centre was “recruiting” people into homosexuality. Two community-based organisations that provided HIV testing and condoms and had shut down have reinitiated some services but no longer receive drop-in clients. The AIDS Support Organization (TASO), Uganda’s largest HIV/AIDS organisation, has suspended its Moonlight Clinics, which offered HIV testing and education. A doctor at the Most At-Risk Populations Initiative, a government programme intended to address high HIV rates, told The Lancet: “Once [the Anti-Homosexuality Act] was passed, the population we serve went into fear. They don’t know what will happen to them if they come to access services. They fear the health-care providers may report them.” “Health-care providers need to be assured that they are not going to be accused of recruitment or promotion.”
Sharmila Devi www.thelancet.com Vol 383 June 7, 2014
Uganda takes “another step backward” with HIV bill
Euan Denholm/X01999/Reuters/Corbis
Uganda recently passed a highly controversial HIV Prevention and Control Act that experts say will set back efforts to control HIV/AIDS in the country. Sharmila Devi reports.
For the report by Amnesty and HRW see http://www.hrw.org/ news/2014/05/14/uganda-antihomosexuality-act-s-heavy-toll
1960
HIV advocacy and human rights groups have condemned the passing by the Ugandan parliament of a bill they say will severely impede the fight against HIV/AIDS as well as stigmatise and discriminate against those with the disease. The HIV Prevention and Control Act includes mandatory HIV testing for pregnant women and their partners, and allows medical providers to disclose a patient’s HIV status to others. The bill also criminalises HIV transmission, attempted transmission, and behaviour that might result in transmission by those who know their HIV status. “This HIV bill is yet another step backward in the fight against AIDS in Uganda”, said Maria Burnett, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW). “It is founded on stigma and discrimination and based on approaches that have been condemned by international health agencies as ineffective and violating the rights of people living with HIV.” Groups including Amnesty International, HRW, and the Health Global Advocacy Project said they would petition President Yoweri Museveni not to sign the bill into law unless parliament removed the provision criminalising transmission of HIV. “For Uganda to address its HIV epidemic effectively, it needs to partner with people living with HIV, not blame them, criminalise them, and exclude them from policy making”, said Dorah Kiconco, executive director of Uganda Network on Law, Ethics & HIV/AIDS. “The President should not sign this bill and instead ensure a rights-based approach, recognising that people living with HIV will prevent transmission if they are empowered and supported.” Since another law that came into force in March—the Anti-
Homosexuality Act—health-care providers have cut back on essential services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people, who also fear harassment or arrest if they seek health care, according to a report by Amnesty International and HRW. Shortly after the Act was signed, Ruhakana Rugunda, health minister, said health services would be provided to LGBTI people in a nondiscriminatory way. But there remained concern about how this would work in practice given that the health ministry had no control over police actions, said the report.
“‘The President should not sign this bill and instead ensure a rights-based approach, recognising that people living with HIV will prevent transmission if they are empowered and supported.’” LGBTI people have faced an increase in arbitrary arrests, police abuse and extortion, loss of employment, evictions and homelessness, and scores have fled the country. At least one transgender person has been killed in an apparent hate crime. Health providers have cut back on essential services for LGBTI people, who also fear harassment or arrest if they seek health care. According to Uganda’s Health Ministry 2012 AIDS Indicator Survey, an estimated 1·5 million Ugandans were living with HIV. There were at least 140 000 new infections annually, including 28 000 from maternal-tochild transmission. Uganda, which has a population of about 34 million, has promoted abstinence-only approaches towards
HIV/AIDS over the past decade. The country had cut infection rates from 18·5% of the population in 1992 to about 5% in 2000, according to UN figures. The current rate is about 7·3%, according to the health ministry. Museveni has been in office for 28 years. Campaigners have accused him of increasingly suppressing democratic freedoms while threatening civil society groups working on issues such as corruption, land, oil, and good governance. Amnesty International and HRW urged the Ugandan Health Ministry to adopt clear guidelines requiring patient confidentiality in all health-care settings and non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. On April 4, police raided the Makerere University Walter Reed Project, a US-funded HIV research and treatment centre. The police claimed the centre was “recruiting” people into homosexuality. Two community-based organisations that provided HIV testing and condoms and had shut down have reinitiated some services but no longer receive drop-in clients. The AIDS Support Organization (TASO), Uganda’s largest HIV/AIDS organisation, has suspended its Moonlight Clinics, which offered HIV testing and education. A doctor at the Most At-Risk Populations Initiative, a government programme intended to address high HIV rates, told The Lancet: “Once [the Anti-Homosexuality Act] was passed, the population we serve went into fear. They don’t know what will happen to them if they come to access services. They fear the health-care providers may report them.” “Health-care providers need to be assured that they are not going to be accused of recruitment or promotion.”
Sharmila Devi www.thelancet.com Vol 383 June 7, 2014