Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni signed
legislation this week criminalising the transmission
of HIV, a measure that allows doctors to violate
confidentiality and disclose their patients’ HIV
status without consent and calls for mandatory
testing for pregnant women and their partners in
violation of their human rights.
While the “HIV
Prevention and AIDS Control Bill” was created in an
effort to curb the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country,
the law as written poses serious human rights
violations that infringe on Ugandans’ right to
privacy and right to be free from discrimination.
The law calls for a sentencing of up to 5 years for
individuals found guilty of transmitting HIV.
Furthermore, the bill singles out women in the
country, subjecting survivors of s*xual assault and
pregnant women to routine HIV blood testing—a
provision that fosters discrimination in the health
care system, deepens the stigma of HIV and AIDS
among those groups, and discourages women from
seeking essential health care.
“No one should ever fear discrimination or
imprisonment when trying to access essential
medical care in her or his country—regardless of
HIV status or other health needs,” said Evelyne
Opondo, regional director for Africa at the Centre
for Reproductive Rights.
“Rather than passing a measure that effectively
address the very real challenges that exist in
curbing the spread and treatment of HIV and AIDS,
this law inflicts punishment, shame, and fear on
men and women in Uganda, including pregnant
women who desperately need and deserve quality
maternal health care.”
Under this new law, medical and health
practitioners are allowed to disclose or release HIV
test results without a patient’s consent.
Non-consensual disclosure of HIV status places
women at risk of physical, s*xual, and
psychological abuse. In 2008 alone, five women in
Uganda were murdered by their husbands after the
men learned about their wives’ HIV-positive status.
Cases of discrimination against pregnant women
living with HIV have occurred in many parts of the
world, including Uganda and Namibia where 15
women who were sterilized without their consent
brought a complaint against the government.

www.informationng.com/2014/08/uganda-criminalises-hiv-transmission.html