|
BONELA Calls For Human Rights Awareness on HIV/AIDS |
|
|
|
The Botswana Network On Ethics, Law and HIV AIDS (BONELA)’s chairperson, attorney Duma Boko, says there is need for people in the legal profession to engage more human rights issues in order to have an informed and human rights conscious country.
By GAONE NKOGA
Speaking at the BONELA annual general meeting last week, Boko said people needed to contribute to more relevant and progressive judgments on HIV/AIDS. He said Botswana’s law reform was slow, observing that litigation was one possible strategy for changing laws, to make them just, relevant and conforming to international human rights standards that the Botswana Government is signatory to.
BONELA revealed plans to continue its Treatment and Literacy Coalition in a bid to fight HIV and AIDS. Treatment and Literacy Coordinator Cindy Kelemi said the programme was concerned with the right to health and access to treatment.
The Coalition also seeks to empower communities with information about treatment and to advocate for service health delivery. Kelemi said some of the programmes for the coming year include disseminating treatment literacy and reproducing relevant Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) materials.
Also on BONELA’s plans for the coming year is the Prevention Initiative for Sexual Minorities (PRISM). Felistus Motimedi, PRISM coordinator, said the project began with a needs assessment to identify existing gaps in service delivery and health needs for sexual minorities such as gays and bisexuals. PRISM members will take part in research conducted by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, in collaboration with southern African countries - Namibia, South Africa and Botswana - on men who have sex with men (MSM) and HIV/AIDS, including an HIV prevalence survey.
“Taking part in the study affords BONELA the opportunity to establish evidence based data to support its argument for the provision of condoms in prisons, and decriminalizing same sex practices,” Motimedi said.
Nthabiseng Nkwe made a presentation on the ‘Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights of Women Living With HIV, that highlighted the challenges women living with the virus in Botswana face when it comes to their reproductive health rights. These include increasing pressure on people living with HIV to disclose their HIV status, HIV discordance, limited safer-sex strategies and family planning, pregnancy and societal attitudes discouraging couples living with HIV to have children.
Nkwe said BONELA conducted 15 fact-finding missions across the country with 228 people living with HIV. From their findings, they discovered that stigma and discrimination were still prevalent. People living with HIV and AIDS’s inability to talk about sex make it difficult for them to enjoy satisfying sex lives, or to plan and exercise reproductive choices that are meaningful to them in their lives, she said.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
