• Read the Report
  • Contact Us
Menu
  • Background
    • HIV and the Law
    • Commission Overview
    • Commissioners
    • Technical Advisory Group
  • Dialogues
    • Global Dialogue 2018
      • 2018 Supplement
      • Global Dialogue 2018 Videos
    • Global Dialogue 2012
      • Video
      • Photo Gallery
      • Speeches
    • Regional Dialogues
      • Asia-Pacific Regional Dialogue
      • Caribbean
      • Eastern Europe and Central Asia
      • Latin America
      • Africa
      • Middle East and North Africa
      • High Income Countries
      • Civil Society Participation
      • Submissions to the Regional Dialogues
  • Implementation
    • Programmes
      • Being LGBTI in Asia
      • Challenging stigma and discrimination in the Caribbean
      • Improving SRHR for young key populations in Southern Africa
      • Multi-Country Western Pacific Integrated HIV/TB Project
      • Promoting a rights-based response to HIV in Africa
      • Removing legal barriers in Africa
      • South Asia Global Fund HIV Programme
      • UHC Legal Solutions Network
    • Follow Up
      • Follow Up Stories
      • Legal Environment Assessments
      • Leave No One Behind: Lessons from the Global Commission on HIV and the Law for Agenda 2030
  • Resources
    • International Guidelines on Human Rights & Drug Policy
    • eLibrary
      • Capacity Development Toolkits
      • Fact Sheets
      • Legal Environment Assessments, Reviews and Audits
      • National Dialogue Reports
      • Policy and Issue Briefs
      • Research, Discussion Papers and Reports
    • Report Resources
      • Read the Report
      • 2018 Supplement
      • Working Papers
      • Submissions
      • Presentations
      • Articles and Speeches from Commissioners
      • Selected Bibliographies
    • Regional Dialogue Resources
      • Asia-Pacific
      • Caribbean
      • Latin America
      • Eastern Europe and Central Asia
      • Africa
      • High Income Countries
  • News
    • News Articles
    • Press Releases
    • Newsletter Archives
  • Past Events
News

HIV-positive women sue Kenya government and NGOs over sterilisation

By katemcqdev

11/12/2014

HIV-positive women sue Kenya government and NGOs over sterilisation

Published on Thursday, 11 December 2014 10:59
Médecins sans Frontières (France) and Marie Stopes International named in lawsuit claiming violation of human, constitutional and reproductive rights

Five HIV-positive women in Kenya are suing the government and two top international NGOs, claiming they were sterilised without their consent.

The group this week filed a legal action against parties including the Kenyan health ministry, Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) and Marie Stopes International.

Meanwhile, activists protested in the capital, Nairobi, arguing that forced sterilisation is still widespread and should be be banned. The women marched from the high court to Uhuru Park with T-shirts that said: “Enforced and coerced sterilisation of women living with HIV”.

Lawyer Allan Maleche said his five clients were sterilised in health facilities in Nairobi county through a procedure known as bilateral tubal ligation. The various circumstances allegedly included: threats to withhold food portions and baby formula milk; inducement with the promise to pay medical and maternity fees; lack of provision of essential information to enable the women to make informed decisions; lack of provision of choices of other forms of family planning methods for the women.

Maleche said that one of the women was given two discount vouchers to reduce the cost of delivering her baby in hospital: one was for a caesarian but she did not realise the other was for tubal ligation.

“They have been psychologically affected, they have found it difficult when their spouse has left them for another spouse who can have more children,” the lawyer said on Thursday. “There is depression because something so valuable in their lives had been taken away from them. Their spouses wanted more children.”

MSF and Marie Stopes International did not directly carry out sterilisations, Maleche added, but allegedly referred the women to government hospitals where the operations were performed.

Source: The Guardian

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Recent Posts

  • UNAIDS update: COVID-19 should not be a reason to delay 2030 deadline to end AIDS as a public health threat
  • 2020 Global HIV Policy Report: Policy Barriers to HIV Progress
  • UNAIDS hails new results showing that long-acting injectable medicines are highly effective in preventing HIV among women
  • UNDP and Supreme Court of Republic of Tajikistan hold international online Judges’ Forum on HIV, Human Rights and the Law
  • Press Release – New HIV Policy Lab uses law and policy data in the HIV response

© 2017 [blog-link], All Rights Reserved.