HARARE - Zimbabwes HIV and AIDS service organisations have threatened to vote against a government-drafted constitution that does not included clauses protecting the rights of people living with the disease.
Participants at a meeting of AIDS service organisations last Tuesday said they wanted rights to access HIV&AIDS treatment and access to health services included in the draft constitution or they would join the National Constitutional Assembly in its No Vote campaign. ??
The Constitutional Parliamentary select Committee (COPAC) is currently gathering views from the public for inclusion in the proposed new charter. The process, which is expected to take 83 days before the draft constitution is put before Zimbabweans in a referendum.
If our issues are not captured by the COPAC we are definitely going to call for a No Vote come referendum time. HIV&AIDS issues are being ignored and yet everyone is being affected in one way or the other, said a member of one of the 15 organisations representing People Living with AIDS that attended the meeting.
Community Working Group on Health Programme manager Caroline Mubaira told the gathering: We are waiting for such time when the COPAC team finishes gathering peoples views and see if HIV&AIDS as well as health issues are well captured . health issues are national issues, which need not to be excluded from the new constitution.??
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights HIV&AIDS Human rights programmes officer Bekizela Mapanda said they were closely monitoring the of HIV and AIDS issues by COPAC outreach teams. ??
Our duty at the moment is that of monitoring the process and see whether there is democracy in terms of the inclusion of rights to health on behalf of people living with the pandemic, said Mapanda.
Post published in: Politics