OSIEA and LAHI Sponsor First East African School on Law, Human Rights, and HIV/AIDS
The Open Society Initiative for East Africa, OSIEA, and Open Society Institute Law and Health Initiative (LAHI) sponsored a two-week training course on the linkages between law, human rights and HIV/AIDS at Makerere University's Faculty of Law in Kampala, Uganda. The training, organized by the Human Rights and Peace Centre (HURIPEC) aimed to highlight the human rights issues and challenges posed by HIV/AIDS and analyzed methods of using the law to promote and protect the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS at both domestic and regional levels.
The first of its kind in Africa, the course was targeted at lawyers, activists and other persons involved in HIV/AIDS advocacy from the East African countries of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda. Over 170 applications for the course were received, out of whom 21 participants were chosen basing on the quality and depth of their work experience, as well as passion for and interest in human rights concerns generally, and HIV/AIDS in particular. This year's participants included lawyers, scholars and activists from a wide range of backgrounds from law firms, governmental agencies, national and international NGOs, International Organizations.
The course adopted a highly interdisciplinary approach. The lecturers on the program included lawyers, social scientists, medical doctors and public health professionals and people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) involved in activism for the rights and dignity of PLWHA. The training also involved a practical clinical component, where participants paid a field visit to the Mulago office of The AIDS Support Organization (TASO), to observe first hand the challenges and success involved in providing access to prevention, treatment and care for PLWHA. At the end of the training, the participants analyzed the draft Uganda HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Bill using a comparative approach, taking into account the Tanzanian, Kenyan and Rwandan laws as well as international laws and policies, and developed recommendations that will be presented to Parliament with a view to ensuring that the final law takes a measured and effective approach to HIV/AIDS taking into account the particular human rights questions posed by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The training is intended to be an annual training program.