hiv/aids control bill 2009 press release




UGANDA HEALTH AND SCIENCE PRESS ASSOCIATION

_____________________________Press Release__________________

For immediate release:
Contact person: Kikonyogo N. Kivumbi (English, Luganda, and Kiswahili)
Cell: +256 752 62 84 06 Email: uhspauganda@gmail.com
HIV/AIDS Control Bill 2009 unfairly targets minorities
Kampala: May 19, 2010… Uganda Health and Science Press Association is concerned about the spirit and implications behind the HIV/AIDS Control Bill 2009 tabled this morning in the Parliament of Uganda.

Whereas it is true that Uganda needs a formal policy or legal mechanism to manage the pandemic, the spirit behind the “Control” bill is an attempt to target minority groups, including LGBTI, Commercial sex workers and People Living with HIV/AIDS as the problem fuelling the pandemic whose prevalence statistics are stagnated at 6.4% in the last few years.

Rather than seeking “to control”, Uganda should be looking at “Managing” the pandemic, in which the proposed law and policy framework should be looking at involving minorities and Peope Living with the virus as partners. This level of tolerance managed to bring the pandemic from over 30% in the 1980s to 6.4% to date. It is the only sure way forward.

We are specifically concerned with the bill’s targeting of the 20% of the Ugandan population who have chosen Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT), living positively, but are now likely targets of the bill; with criminalization of the spread of the virus. Such clauses shall promote fear and discrimination against Minority groups, and fuel the spread of HIV/AIDS. Besides, the bill does not address the needs of LGBTI as a community that needs attention in the fight against the pandemic, despite UNAIDS country advice that MSM are a Most At Risk Population that needs attention in Aids programmes.

This bill if passed shall drive people, especially minorities underground; in the face of possible prosecution and forced disclosure, most people will hide way There would be no reason to take tests in fear of prosecution. Besides, Uganda already has laws on the penal code that criminalizes sex work and LGBTI community.
The proposed bill requires mandatory disclosure of information about physical residence, work among others under the consent form, and there are no guarantees that information obtained through the health infrastructure shall not be used against minority groups for hate crimes and stigmatisation.

Kikonyogo Kivumbi- UHSPA
Executive Director
______________________________________________________________________________

Notes for the Editor

Putting the HIV/AIDS Control Bill 2009 into policy perspective

• The Hiv/Aids Control Bill 2009 tabled today comes at a time of intense policy and legal proposals that undermine and seek to suffocate minorities in Uganda. This bill proposes setting up a health information infrastructure on HIV. However confidentiality remains a wanting matter in Uganda.
• This is given the fact that the Anti Homosexuality Bill 2009 before parliament requires doctors and health workers or people in positions of authority to report their clients “within 24 hours” of knowing their sexual orientation.
• This bill comes amid the operationalisation of the Equal Opportunities Commission Act 2007 that sets up the Equal Opportunities Commission with tribunal powers. This law passed in 2007 clearly states that it can not entertain complaints from minority groups. Hence the HIV/AIDS bill creates conditions that shall see LGBTI and other minorities being stigmatized and discriminated against in work places and communities, with no right to be heard before the commission.
• This bill comes as Uganda is working on final stages of the Health Sector Strategic Plan III, which seeks to draw a health seeking and availability infrastructure for all Ugandans irrespective of sexual orientation or other considerations. However, HSSPIII being developed by the Ministry of Health due for launch in October 2010 has failed to recognize the LGBTI community under its MARPS (Most At Risk Populations). Other Marps include IDPS,Prisoners
Visit: http://uhspauganda.blogspot.com/2010/05/witch-hunting-minorities-skeletons.html
About UHSPA Uganda
Uganda Health and Science Press Association is a registered LGBTI network of groups and individuals that works to promote health rights of vulnerable and minority groups in Uganda. It brings together journalists ,lawyers,social scientists, minority groups, students and the academia to put an end to homophobia and Transphobia;streamline minority concerns in all Uganda's public health policies and laws .
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Open Urgent Appeal to HIV/AIDS Civil Society in Uganda to scale-back MSM HIV bridging population Infection rates on occasion of Marking World Aids Da

Image
Photo:Minority activists make a case for equal access to treatment before Parliamentary HIV/AIDS Committee.( L-R)Ms Macklean Kyomya (WONETHA), Mr.Kikonyogo Kivumbi (UHSPA)and Ms Daisy Nakato( WONETHA) Kampala, November 30,201O…. We, the leaders of Minority Rights Organizations in Uganda with Special interest in reversing HIV/AIDS prevalence rates among our constituencies; Aware of the important contribution of Ugandan Civil Society to best practices in Global management of HIV/AIDS, In full Solidarity with you our sisters and brothers in CSO in the genuine struggles ahead to better management of HIV/AIDS Uganda, Cognizant of the incredible contribution to past and ongoing research involving sex workers and LGBTI community in Uganda and other countries to the development and advancement of knowledge on Anti Retroviral Therapy, prevention, care and diagnostic regimes, currently benefiting Ugandans, Underscoring the important lobbying you do for Universal access to Anti retroviral Th
Read more

'What's wrong with Lesbian Sex?' Asks Ugandan High Court Judge

Image
Kampala- November 26, 2010 A High Court Judge in Uganda has questioned the legality and assertions that two women in an intimate sexual relationship were “against the order of nature.” In a first to casting a shadow of doubt and unconstitutionality on the draconian Ugandan Penal Code criminalizing same sex relationships in Uganda, Justice Kibuuka Musoke wondered Friday in Kampala what wrong two intimate women in Love commit. “Two women…..Tell me counsel; …….what order of nature is violated here?!” Justice Musoke, asked a defense lawyer in a case in which three alleged gays sued a Ugandan tabloid for violating their Constitutional Rights. The defense lawyer had told a packed court that two of the plaintiffs (names with held) were lesbians, committing acts against the order of nature, and promoting homosexuality. He cited several internet sites where the photos of the plaintiffs are alleged to appear as gay activists. The defense lawyer also struggled to tell court that the plaintiffs ha
Read more

She is My Son: The Pain of Being an Intersex Person in Uganda Press Release May 15,2012

Image
Press Release For  Immediate Release   Kampala, May 15,2012  Human Rights defenders call for action to protect Intersex Children and people in Uganda Two human rights groups in Uganda have this morning launched a documentary: She is My Son- The Pain of being an Intersex person in Uganda, with a call on government to protect intersex people by availing families with information on intersexuality.   The two organizations, Support Initiative for People with atypical Sex Development (Sipd Uganda) and Uganda Health and Science Press Association noted with concern that many intersex people are denied their full potential in life for simply being who they are.  The documentary has also been posted on you tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMfRrc64rl4&feature=share. Mr. Julius Kaggwa, the SIPD Uganda Executive Director said while launching the documentary that intersex people face discrimination, isolation and stigma based on their genital make up and other conditions that not necess
Read more