Gareth Manning, Gleaner Writer
NEW LAWS to reduce discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS are on the horizon.
Law firm, Mcneil and Macfarlane, commissioned by the National HIV/STI Control Programme, has made a number of recommendations to reform existing legislation in an effort to improve the protection of human rights of people living with the disease.
The law firm has made 11 recommendations to amend existing laws and establish new ones to help treat HIV/AIDS-related issues in schools and workplace and other public and private institutions. The recommendations were made based on a review of international conventions and treaties by the firm pertaining to HIV/AIDS and human rights.
Among the recommendations are calls for amendments to the Public Health Act to redefine the term 'communicable diseases' so HIV is not seen as an air-borne infection, and also a repeal of the buggery law under the Offences Against the Person Act to reduce the incidence of discrimination based on sexual orientation.
AGITATING FOR
DISCRIMINATION ACT
Mcneil and Macfarlane are also agitating for a National Education Policy Act to deal with the issue of discrimination in both private and public schools.
While there is currently a policy to manage HIV/AIDS in schools, there are still some schools that are turning away children because they are HIV positive
or perceived to be so, because a relative or parent is living with the infection or disease. Many of the schools are private institutions that feel they are governed by the current policy.
"This [legislation] is to support the policy because right now management policy governs both staff and student," says Faith Hamer, technical officer for Policy Advocacy and Human Rights in the National HIV/STI Programme. "But unless we have supportive legislation you would find that persons in the work place as well as in the schools can try to escape the provisions of the policy."
The law firm also points out that there is a need for correlation of both the Public Health Act and the Child Care and Protection Act to protect the right to privacy as it relates to HIV/AIDS of both the victim and the perpetrator in cases where a sexual offence has been committed. The firm says the right can be breached in unintentional ways.
Constitutional reform and an establishment of a public body is also being recommended to allow for an expressed provision within the constitution to prohi-bit discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS and to allow for better coordination and control of HIV/AIDS policies.
"It (the recommendations) will form the basis for the cabinet submission that will address the legislative gaps relating to the issue of HIV and AIDS," Hamer discloses.
However, she notes legislation is a last resort: "We don't want to wait on enforcement. We want people to be informed through public education so they can begin to change their behaviour now. We don't want to force people because that doesn't necessarily work."
