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- Ensure equitable and nondiscriminatory access to health services
for all, including PLWHA;
- Ensure that health practitioners, NGOs (including
organizations representing people living with HIV/AIDS) and other
personnel working on HIV/AIDS are fully informed on the national
guidelines for treatment of HIV/AIDS in particular requirements for CD4
testing and eligibility criteria for access to antiretroviral drugs and
implement a monitoring mechanism that will ensure that the criteria are uniformly
and properly applied;
- Clarify and standardize national guidelines for social
welfare exemptions for health user fees. Ensure that social welfare
offices have the financial and technical resources to properly evaluate
candidates and fulfill obligations to pay medical expenditures to
hospitals. Ensure that exemptions for CD4 tests are not arbitrarily
restricted; and
- Ensure that all individuals testing positive for HIV are
provided with information on: where to access medical care and counseling
(including information on requirements for accessing antiretroviral
therapy and medicine for opportunistic infections); criteria for social
welfare exemptions for health user fees; the rights of individuals
participating in clinical research trials; and, the broader rights of
people living with HIV/AIDS to nondiscrimination.
- Respect the right to work of all people:
- Clarify the procedures and requirements for obtaining a
trading license, allocation of vending stalls, and expedite the process
for obtaining a trading license. Ensure national standards for licenses
and guarantee nondiscrimination against women and people living with
HIV/AIDS in eligibility requirements for a trading license. Set up
appropriate, participatory, non-formal forums for the discussion of
informal trading practices with representation by street vendors and
hawkers, NGOs, local authorities, the police and others;
- Facilitate participation by vulnerable and marginalized
populations, including women and people living with HIV/AIDS in the
informal sector of the economy by setting reasonable and appropriate
license fees; and
- Review legislation on informal trading activities and
expand legal access to the use of appropriate and available space for
vending in urban areas.
- Legislate and enforce prohibitions against practices that
place women at a disadvantage in society and increase their risk of HIV
infection—such as domestic violence and discriminatory customary laws.
Enact the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Protection of Victims of
Domestic Violence Bill of 2005 without delay;
- Initiate legal and policy reforms that ensure that
legislation and traditional practices are nondiscriminatory,
gender-sensitive and empowering to women. To this end repeal or amend
section 23 (3) (b) of the constitution which discriminates against women
in the private sphere, and recognize women’s matrimonial property rights
under unregistered customary unions;
- Ensure that all protections afforded to women are
strengthened and fully compliant with Zimbabwe’s obligations under the
Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW) and are implemented as a matter of urgency; and
- Undertake measures to combat violence and discrimination
targeted at women living with HIV/AIDS.
On the participation of civil society and PLWHA in HIV/AID- related
programs:
- Repeal or amend all legislation which inappropriately
interferes with the work of local and international NGOs, including
legislation governing the operation of NGOs and private voluntary
organizations. Ensure that activists and NGOs working with and supporting
PLWHA are free to carry out their work without fear of harassment,
intimidation or arrest;
- Ensure the meaningful participation of PLWHA and civil society
in the decision-making and monitoring process of all HIV/AIDS-related
funding, policy, and programming. PLWHA and civil society should be
included in monitoring the government’s progress in the fulfillment of its
commitments and obligations relating to HIV/AIDS. For example, in the
monitoring and reporting of the 2006 Global Fund grant and the report to
the United Nations General Assembly in 2008 on the establishment and
progress towards national targets related to the 2006 High Level Meeting
on AIDS; and
- Regularly conduct general HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns
that provide comprehensive information on how HIV/AIDS is transmitted and
how it can be prevented, to fight stigma and discrimination, with a
particular emphasis on discrimination within the home and family. Where
the rights of PLWHA have been violated there should be accessible and
nondiscriminatory mechanisms to remedy their grievances.
- Continue to call on the government of Zimbabwe to respect human rights and provide an environment that is conducive to effectively
addressing the crisis;
- Support those persons displaced by Operation Murambatsvina
including providing support for income-generating and microfinance
projects, to provide financial security to those affected by the
evictions;
- Support women’s grass roots rights organizations and
community initiatives by providing them with funding and other forms of
assistance for their work on women’s rights and HIV/AIDS such as:
- Programs that raise general awareness on HIV/AIDS
treatment and prevention, and fight stigma and discrimination;
- Prevention interventions that provide comprehensive and
accurate information and reduce the vulnerability of women to infection;
- Strengthening legal protections on property inheritance
and ownership for women, especially those living with HIV/AIDS; and
- Promotion of advocacy work with both men and women in the
community that challenge abusive and violent behavior.
- Work to ensure donor supported sites, provide all
individuals testing HIV positive with information on:
- Where to access medical care and counseling (including
information on requirements for accessing antiretroviral therapy and
medicine for opportunistic infections);
- Where to access legal assistance for domestic violence or
violations of inheritance and property rights;
- The criteria for social welfare exemptions for health
user fees;
- The rights of individuals participating in clinical
research trials; and
- The broader rights of people living with HIV/AIDS to
nondiscrimination.
- All testing should be done with the fully informed consent
of the individual being tested and procedures should be followed that
ensure strict confidentiality of the test results; and
- Urgently increase assistance to HIV/AIDS programs, to
ensure the rapid scale-up of ART for those in need. This assistance can be
through direct support of government of Zimbabwe public health facilities
(including clinics, laboratories, etc) and social welfare offices, or
through non-governmental organizations providing treatment and support,
including private non-profit and faith based organizations. Ensure that
treatment programs take into account the particular obstacles confronting
women, other marginalized groups, and homeless persons in terms of
accessing and adhering to treatment.
- Take steps to ensure that grants from the Fund are
allocated in a transparent and accountable manner by the government of Zimbabwe;
- Ensure participation of PLWHA and civil society, in the
decision-making, monitoring and reporting process of the 2006 Global Fund
grant; and
- Monitor the equity of access to ART provided by Global
Fund support according to gender and geographic residence. Ensure that eligibility
criteria for ART are scientifically supported and not subjected to
manipulation or unnecessary, and therefore arbitrary, obstacles.
- Ensure the meaningful participation of PLWHA and civil
society, in the decision-making and monitoring process of all
HIV/AIDS-related funding, policy and programming. PLWHA and civil society
should be included in monitoring the government’s progress in the fulfillment
of its commitments and obligations relating to HIV/AIDS, for example in
the monitoring of the report to the United Nations General Assembly in
2008 on the establishment and progress towards national targets related to
the 2006 High Level Meeting on AIDS; and
- Provide support to the Ministry of Health and Child
Welfare for the means to provide monitoring and evaluation of the equity
of antiretroviral treatment scale-up with measurement of individuals in
need of ART accessing therapy by gender and geographic residence.
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