Uganda: Deeply Flawed HIV Bill Approved

(Kampala) – The HIV Prevention and Control Act passed by the Ugandan parliament on May 13, 2014, is discriminatory and will impede the fight against AIDS,Legal Link International, Human Rights Watch, HEALTH Global Action Project, and Uganda Network on Law, Ethics and HIV/AIDS said today.

The bill includes mandatory HIV testing for pregnant women and their partners, and allows medical providers to disclose a patient’s HIV status to others. The bill also criminalizes HIV transmission, attempted transmission, and behavior that might result in transmission by those who know their HIV status.

“This HIV bill is yet another step backward in the fight against AIDS in Uganda,” said Maria Burnett, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “It is founded on stigma and discrimination and based on approaches that have been condemned by international health agencies as ineffective and violating the rights of people living with HIV.”

Mandatory HIV testing and the disclosure of medical information without consent are contrary to international best practices and violate fundamental human rights, the three groups said. The criminalization of HIV transmission, attempted transmission, and behavior that might result in transmission by those who know their HIV status is overly broad, and difficult to enforce.

UNAIDS and other international agencies have discouraged such laws, which can disproportionately target women, who because of health care during pregnancy may be more likely to know their HIV status.

The bill has been pending inUganda's parliament since 2010. It passed even though the Health Ministry’s AIDS Control Program, the Uganda AIDS Commission, and many independent health rights groups in Uganda do not support the contentious clauses and urged Uganda to fight HIV with more effective legislation.

“For Uganda to address its HIV epidemic effectively, it needs to partner with people living with HIV, not blame them, criminalize them, and exclude them from policy making,” said Dorah Kiconco, executive director of Uganda Network on Law, Ethics & HIV/AIDS. “The president should not sign this bill and instead ensure a rights-based approach, recognizing that people living with HIV will prevent transmission if they are empowered and supported.”

According to the Uganda’s Health Ministry 2012 AIDS Indicator Survey, an estimated 1.5 million Ugandans were living with HIV. There are at least 140,000 new infections annually, including 28,000 from maternal to child transmission. Uganda’s HIV policies over the last decade have emphasized abstinence-only approaches for youth and marital fidelity. Combined with punitive laws against sex workers and homosexuals, these approaches are felt by many to have increased the stigma and discrimination around HIV and discouraged more people from being tested and treated.

“At the upcoming international AIDS conference, Uganda will be the example to all the countries gathered of how not to write laws on the HIV response,” said Asia Russell, international policy director at Health GAP (Global Access Project). “Parliamentarians are doing precisely the opposite of what Uganda should be doing to fight HIV.”

KENYA:STOP ARRESTS AND ILEGAL DENTENTION OF SOMALIES

Kenyan police and other security agencies should stop arbitrary arrests and detentions, extortion, and other abuses against Somalis during security operations,  Human Rights Watch and Legal Link International said today. The government should also halt summary deportations and ensure that any undocumented Somalis are given the opportunity to file asylum claims.

On April 4 and 8, 2014, Human Rights Watch and Legal Link International visited Pangani police station in Eastleigh and found hundreds of detainees packed into cells designed to accommodate 20 people. Detainees had no room to sit, and the cells were filthy with urine and excrement. Police were also holding detainees beyond the 24-hour limit proscribed under Kenyan law, without taking them to court. One man at Pangani station complained to Legal Link International that he had been held for eight days without being taken to court.

“Scapegoating and abusing Somalis for heinous attacks by unknown people is not going to protect Kenyans, Somalis, or anyone else against more attacks,” said Gerry Simpsom, senior refugee researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Kenay’s deportation of Somalis to their conflict-ridden country without allowing them to seek asylum would be a flagrant breach of its legal obligations.”

Since April 2, almost 4,000 people are reported to have been arrested and detained in Nairobi and Mombasa. According to Human Rights Watch research, some of the detainees have been released after they produced identification documents, but only after days in deplorable detention conditions or after they paid bribes. On April 9, the Kenyan authorities summarily deported 82 undocumented Somali nationals from the capital, Nairobi, to Somalia. Kenyan officials have said that they plan to deport all undocumented Somali nationals as part of the response to recent grenade and other attacks in Kenya by unidentified people.

The Kenyan government began a massive security operation in Nairobi’s predominantly Somali Eastleigh district on April 2. On April 9, Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku told the mediathat, during “Operation Usalama Watch,” police had arrested “almost 4,000 people.” An Administration Police spokesman, Masoud Mwinyi,said police had arrested and screened 3,000 people of whom 467 had been detained for further investigation. He said police had also charged 67 people with various unspecified offenses.

According to Kenyan officials, the operation began in response to a number of attacks in Nairobi and Mombasa in March that killed a total of 12 people and injured 8 more. An attack on a Nairobi shopping mall in September 2013 killed 67 people and injured hundreds.

Kenyan police operations in Nairobi and Mombasa in the wake of attacks have resulted on numerous occasions in serious human rights violations against both refugees and Kenyan citizens, Human Rights Watch said.

In the Pangani police station, Human Rights Watch witnessed police whipping, beating, and verbally abusing detainees. There have been numerous credible accounts of Kenyan security forces extorting money and beating people during the arrests and in detention. 

Hundreds, and possibly thousands, of people have also been detained in the Kasarani sports stadium in Nairobi. Independent investigators and media were denied access to Kasarani until April 9, when a limited visit was permitted. People who participated said that they were only provided limited access and were not able to freely interview detainees in the stadium.

On April 8,Lenku said, “The process will continue until we do not have illegal aliens and those found to have refugees documents are taken to refugees camps.”

Kenyan security forces, including the Administration Police and General Service Unit (GSU) have a  record of committing serious human rights violations during security operations against communities of ethnic Somalis, Human Rights Watch said.

A May 2013 Human Rights Watch report described how Kenyan police in Nairobi tortured, raped, and otherwise abused and arbitrarily detained at least 1,000 refugees, including women and children, between mid-November 2012 and late January 2013, following grenade and other attacks in Eastleigh. The police called the refugees “terrorists” and said they should move to the refugee camps.

“For the second time in less than two years, the world is looking on aghast as Kenyan security forces abuse countless men, women, and children alike in the heart of Kenya, just a stone’s throw from government ministries and the United Nations,”  Simpson said.

The police sweeps follow announcement on March 26th that all urban refugees were required to move to refugee camps. Such a move would violate a July 26, 2013 Kenya High Court ruling, which quashed an identical government refugee relocation plan from December 2012.

According to credible sources, some Somali refugees arrested in Eastleigh in the April operation were released with an order to report to the refugee camps within two weeks.

On April 9, Somalia’s ambassador to Kenya told journalists that Kenya had deported 82 Somali nationals to Mogadishu, the Somali capital.

Kenya should stop summarily deporting Somali nationals, which risks violating its obligations under Kenyan and international law not to return anyone to situations of persecution or generalized violence. Any undocumented individuals should be given the opportunity to file an application for asylum, Human Rights Watch said.

The Kenyan government should provide full access to staff of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to interview and register asylum claims of undocumented Somalis.

In January, the United Nations refugee agency issued guidelines on returns to Somalia and called on countries not to return anyone before interviewing them and ensuring they do not face the threat of persecution or other serious harm if returned. UNHCR said that Somalia remains “a very dangerous place” and that no Somali national should be “forcibly returned to Somalia unless the returning state is convinced that the persons involved would not be at risk of persecution.”

Human Rights Watch said the Kenyan authorities were obliged to allow UNHCR to register asylum claims from anyone in Kenya, regardless of how long the person had been in Kenya before lodging a claim. Although Kenyan refugee law says an asylum seeker should lodge their claim with the authorities within 30 days of arrival, UNHCR does not impose any such deadline. Somali nationals’ access to UNHCR is all the more important after Kenya suspended all services to urban refugeesa, including registering new asylum seekers, in December 2012.

Kenyan immigration law allows the authorities to regulate who is in Kenya, and Kenya may prevent certain categories of people from entering or remaining in the country, including those deemed to be a security threat.

However, Kenyan and international law prohibit refoulement – forcible return to persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, or to a situation where a person would be at real risk of torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Kenya is also prohibited from returning anyone to a place where their “life, physical integrity, or liberty would be threatened on account of external aggression, occupation, foreign domination, or events seriously disturbing public order.”

In its January 2014 guidelines, UNHCR said that it “consider[s] the options for Somalis to find protection from persecution or serious harm within Southern and Central Somalia to be limited,” especially in the large areas that remain under the control of the Islamic militant group Al-Shabaab.

Al-Shabaab has continued to forcibly recruit people into its ranks, including children, and to target individuals perceived to support the Somali government and its partners. On March 5, al-Shabaab publicly executed three alleged spies in Barawe, one of the group’s strongholds.

UNHCR also noted an increase in al-Shabaab attacks in 2013 in Mogadishu that killed civilians. Conflict related injuries in Mogadishu and the southern port town of Kismayo also increased in early 2014.

According to UNHCR, 1.1 million people are currently displaced within Somalia, including 369,000 in Mogadishu. In a March 2013 report, Human Rights Watch found that members of state security forces and armed groups had raped, beaten, and otherwise mistreated displaced Somalis in Mogadishu.A February 2014 Human Rights Watch report documented high levels of rape and sexual abuse against displaced women and girls in the capital throughout 2013.

In other parts of south-central Somalia, a joint military offensive by the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) and the Somali National Armed Forces (SNAF) against al-Shabaab has resulted in new internal displacement, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Foreign donors to Kenya and UNHCR should vigorously and publicly oppose summary deportations of Somalis, Human Rights Watch said.

“Kenya’s summary deportation of Somali nationals should end,” Simpson said. “Undocumented people should be given the opportunity to file an asylum application rather than being summarily deported back to the dangers of south-central Somalia.”

UN Human Rights Chief Condemns Crackdown On Journalists and bloggers in Ethiopia

The United Nations human rights chief today condemned the crackdown on journalists in Ethiopia and the increasing restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression in the Horn of Africa nation.

The comments by High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay follow the recent arrest and detention of six members of the blogging collective Zone Nine and three journalists in the capital, Addis Ababa.

"I am deeply concerned by this recent wave of arrests and the increasing climate of intimidation against journalists and bloggers prevailing in Ethiopia," she stated in a news release.

The nine people arrested last week remain in custody. On 27 April, they appeared before the Arada Court of First Instance. Although the exact charges against each of them remain unclear, the UN human rights office has received information that they were arrested for "working with foreign human rights organizations and inciting violence through social media to create instability in the country."

They reportedly are being held incommunicado and some of their family members who tried to bring them food over the weekend were denied access.

Since January 2012, a number of journalists have been convicted under the Anti-terrorism Proclamation to sentences ranging from 5 years to life imprisonment. Two journalists arrested in July 2012 and January 2013 under the same law are currently in detention, awaiting their trial.

"The fight against terrorism cannot serve as an excuse to intimidate and silence journalists, bloggers, human rights activists and members of civil society organizations. And working with foreign human rights organisations cannot be considered a crime," said the High Commissioner.

"Over the past few years, the space for dissenting voices has been shrinking dramatically in Ethiopia," she added.

Ms. Pillay stressed that in its efforts to combat terrorism, the Ethiopian Government must comply at all times with its human rights obligations under international law. The country is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, both of which guarantee the right to freedom of expression.

The High Commissioner urged the Ethiopian Government to release all bloggers and journalists currently in detention for simply exercising their right to freedom of expression. She also reiterated her appeal for there to be a review of current anti-terrorism and civil society legislation to ensure its conformity with international human rights standards.

The human rights chief's call comes on the eve of World Press Freedom Day, observed annually on 3 May. The Day is an opportunity to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; assess the state of press freedom throughout the world; defend the media from attacks on their independence; and pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty.