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 .
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