By Michael Gwarisa
In a bid to uncover and address the shrinking civil space and funding gaps for Sexual Reproductive health, HIV, and Tuberculosis programming in the Southern African regional, ARASA has launched it’s 2033 Health and Rights report.
The report was launched this week on the sidelines of the 22nd Edition of the International Conference on Aids and STIs in Africa (ICASA).
ARASA director, Dr. Ntombi Muchuchuti said the report was in synch with the ICASA theme for 2023, Let Communities Lead. “The report is an analysis and assessment of the legal framework within the 18 countries to see the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
The policies and legal framework and what is happening and our intention is to try and write about the laws that criminalise HIV transmission and laws that criminalise same-sex, laws that criminalise probably drug use,” she said.
She added that the report was also set to address the laws that can undermine the progress that has been made regarding HIV prevention and to ensure that the 2030 agenda is a reality.
We have given the partners, the communities the report so they know in their various countries, how the progress is going, what area still needs to be dealt with and to be able to engage with their governments in terms of coordinating and bringing to the fore the gaps that are there in the country and engaging with their own government.”
She added that they had convened for the communities to come and discuss issues regarding HIV prevention, sexual reproductive health rights and sexual and gender orientation. “We work with diverse communities, we work with the key populations, we work with people that use drugs, we work with the sex workers, we also work with the LGBTIQ community, including people affected and infected with HIV.
“Our intention was to bring diverse communities to discuss and to debate and to also monitor the progress and what is lacking and what has been done so well and learn from each other. Key to the discussion was that we had donor communities, the development corporation, we also had various government departments and we also had civil society from other countries, including the communities themselves.”
She added that their responsibility is to convene space so that they create (a space) for people to come and discuss, further noting that they work across the region in 18 countries and their main targets are the parliamentarians, the human rights commissioners, media, civil society, human rights defenders, including the people that are infected or affected with HIV.
