Published by the government of Zimbabwe
30 August 2008
Harare — After four years of nationwide consultations and sector specific meetings on coming up with a Zimbabwean HIV and Aids and Human Rights Charter, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights will today launch the charter at a Harare hotel.
Communications officer for ZLHR, Kumbirai Mafunda, said the completion of the four-year exercise and the subsequent launch, would highlight an important step in the promotion and protection of the rights of people living with HIV and Aids in Zimbabwe.
The HIV and Aids, Human Rights and Law Project was established in 2004 by ZLHR to enable and cultivate a legal and human rights response to the epidemic in Zimbabwe.
According to PlusNews, the increasing passing of legislation that criminalises HIV exposure and transmission by some African countries, created fierce debate during the recent International Aids Conference held in Mexico.
Some readers have been asking whether Zimbabwe had introduced laws pertaining to human rights in as far as HIV and Aids are concerned. The charter to be launched today would certainly answer some such questions.
The project seeks to use law and human rights-based programming in stemming the advance of the HIV and Aids in the communities around the country.
Meanwhile, more positive news continue to dominate in the area of HIV and Aids, with reports that HIV transmission among young people in Zimbabwe, as well as seven other countries in Africa, is on the decline.
According to latest findings by the Joint UN Programme on HIV and Aids, UNAids, and the World Health Organisation, new HIV infections and mortality are declining and the prevalence of HIV levelling.
"The new data also suggests that HIV transmission among young people is declining in nine countries -- Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cameroon, Chad, Kenya, Malawi, Togo, Zambia and Haiti," said UNAids executive director, Dr Peter Piot in the 2007 Aids Epidemic Update.
"These trends, combined with evidence of significant declines in HIV prevalence among young pregnant women in urban or rural areas from five countries (Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Malawi and Zambia) indicate that HIV prevention efforts are having a significant impact in some of the worst affected countries."
This indeed is wonderful news considering that an estimated 22.5 million people living with HIV -- or 68 percent of the global total -- are in sub-Saharan Africa.
Eight countries in the region currently account for almost one-third of all new HIV infections and Aids deaths globally.
Revised HIV estimates show that the percentage of people living with HIV the world over has levelled off and that the number of new infections has also fallen.
In addition to the 32.2 million people estimated to be living with HIV in 2007, 2,5 million were newly infected and 2.1 million had died of Aids.
"Unquestionably, we are beginning to see a return on investment -- new HIV infections and mortality are declining and the prevalence of HIV levelling," said Dr Piot.
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