Partners convene to reflect and re-strategize on the Global Regional Grant on Removing Legal Barriers

The UNDP Regional office for Africa hosted the 3rd annual partners’ forum under the Global Fund Africa Regional Grant on HIV – Removing Legal Barriers on 14 – 15 February 2018 in Istanbul. The meeting was attended by 20 participants from the, principal recipient and sub recipient organizations comprising of: AIDS Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA), South African Litigation Centre (SALC), Enda Sante and Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV & AIDS (KELIN).

The partners’ forum sought to achieve the following:

  1. To discuss and agree on the 2018 Work Plan
  2. Provide inputs to finalize progress, updates and disbursement requests to the Global Fund
  3. Discuss and strategize on the future of the grant

The meeting provided an avenue to reflect on implementation of the grant. Modeling and use of small grants to implement high impact strategies was cited as a practice worth documenting, as it had shown encouraging potential. An example is sub granting Key Populations led CSOs and CBOs to reach out to its populace at grassroots level at a low cost. Further discussions emphasized the need to document the overall impact of the project across the 10 project countries.

One success that stood out from the reflection was SALC’s ability to successfully file and conclude a public interest litigation case within the grant period. This is a rare occurrence in most projects that have a component of public interest litigation. The case in question was about a woman living with HIV who was convicted of negligently and recklessly doing an act which is “likely to spread the infection of any disease which is dangerous to life” under section 192 of the Malawi Penal Code for accidentally breastfeeding another person’s child. She was unrepresented during the trial and sentenced for 9 months. The matter was appealed by SALC and the Court ruled that the appellant did not have the requisite knowledge or belief that breastfeeding the complainant’s child was likely to spread HIV. The Court further set out the appropriate parameters for the limits to the application of criminal law in cases of HIV transmission and exposure, affirming that the law’s function should be primarily protective and to protect people living with HIV from “the unjust consequences of public panic”.

Moving forward KELIN will work with the UNDP-Africa and the other organisations to successfully implement the remaining project activities and develop a publication showcasing the grant’s success stories.

To contribute to the discussions on this forum, follow KELIN on our social media platforms: Twitter: @KELINkenya using these hash tags: #justice2health; Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kelinkenya

 

For more information, contact:

Ted Wandera

Program Officer

Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV&AIDS (KELIN)

4th Floor, Somak Building, Mombasa Road

Tel +254202515790; Cell +254788220300

Email: twandera@kelinkenya.org