Stakeholders and Senior Prisons Officials at the workshop on a Rights Based approach to HIV and TB in Prisons
Picture By: KELIN/Regina Mwanza
“…..Where the law does not stand in the way of proven HIV prevention interventions reaching those who use drugs and those who are prisoners, and where the law does not criminalize adult consensual sex and gender identity, HIV prevention outcomes are vastly improved.” Sheila Ngatia UNDP Assistant Country Director & Team Leader, Democratic Governance
KELIN in partnership with the AIDS Control Unit – Kenya Prisons Service conducted a high level meeting with senior prison officials to discuss their role in adhering to a rights based management to HIV and TB in prisons. The three day workshop ran from 14-16 October, 2014.
The following key issues were raised;
- The need to undertake gender responsive programming to meet the special needs of women in prisons.
- The need to document evidence to identify new trends and information to help shape public health services for HIV and TB programming in prisons.
- The need to undertake intensive comprehensive HIV and TB awareness among prison staff and prisoners to combat stigma and discrimination.
- The need to promote the use of non-custodial sentences to decongest prisons.
- The need to end detention of TB drug defaulters in prison.
Other issues discussed included provision of condoms to prisoners to help reduce new infections and addressing drug dependency in prisons for both staff and prisoners. However, it was agreed that there is need for further research on the effectiveness of condom programming in prisons to influence duty bearers with concrete evidence.
The meeting came to an end with Kenya Prisons Service recommending that they needed Prison specific HIV and TB policies fit for their unique settings.
To know more on the discussions during the forum, follow KELIN on our social media platforms for the latest updates:
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