Baby Blues
For the last decade, everyone living and working with AIDS has been preoccupied with securing access to life-saving drugs. Now that just under a million South Africans are on ARVs, there’s a new frontier in the fight against the virus: Safeguarding the human rights of people living with HIV.
What’s come to light, is a hidden and devastating violation being perpetrated against some women with HIV in Southern Africa. Forced sterilisation. It’s an unspoken, ignored practice ‘ a misplaced effort to stop the virus. It adds up to medicalised violence against women.
In international law, forced sterilisation is recognised as a crime against humanity, if it’s widespread or systematic. Forced sterilisation in Southern Africa was for the first time challenged in landmark court cases this year.
Health-e News tells the story.