Group Calls For Law To Protect PLWHAs

By Stephen Kwabena Effah
Wednesday, 04 October 2006 (Page 4)

The Ghana Network of Persons Living with HIV/AIDS (NAP+ Ghana) has called on the country’s legislators to merge all HIV/AIDS policies into one law to protect the interest of PLWHAs.

"Policies are but administrative measures which do not wield the same level of compulsion as laws do," Major Moses Adraku (rtd), president of the network said at a workshop on HIV/AIDS law in Ghana in Accra yesterday.


However, Health Minister, Major Courage Quashigah (rtd), thinks the compulsive aspect of law may result in a backlash, build unnecessary resentment towards PLWHA and worsen their plight.

He said, "It may also erode or undermine the little remaining social support system available for PLWHA and their dependents," and therefore asked the network to understand the implications of such a law.

The two-day workshop was organized by the network to enable stakeholders examine the possibility of formulating a law to safeguard the interest of PLWHAs.

Major Quashigah said since the stigma and mysticism associated with people with HIV/AIDS have not been sufficiently dealt with and "indeed cannot be dealt with through legislation, people are going to find ingenious ways of circumventing the law".

Major Adraku indicated that the major challenges confronting PLWHAs in Ghana are stigmatisation and discrimination which limit the meaningful involvement of PLWHA in the national response programmes.

As a result, he said that PLWHAs remain largely invisible and decisions are made for them without their involvement stressing that, "indeed stigmatising environment remains one of the most agonizing and painful challenges in controlling the pandemic".

"Currently, there is no law, or an act of parliament in Ghana passed with specific reference to how persons living with HIV/AIDS or affected by AIDS should be treated or which gives them any adequate rights or protection," he indicated.

Major Adraku said that although there are good provisions in other laws that can be used to adjudicate HIV/AIDS, such provisions are not HIV/AIDS-sensitive, stressing that PLWHAs need greater protection from aggressive persons in the communities.

The UN AIDS Representative in Ghana, Dr. Warren Naamara, said that discrimination against PLWHA in the country "is a sign of ignorance and poor application of laws".

He noted that the country’s human rights and criminal laws are not adequately applied, saying "we will do well if these laws are appropriately applied".

By putting in place proper laws, he said stigmatisation and discrimination in the country would reduce to the barest minimum.

He expressed the UN AIDS support for the network and Ghana AIDS Commission in the national response programmes.