On 18th April 2014, Parliament of Uganda received the report on the HIV&AIDS Prevention and Management Bill 2010 which was tabled by the chairperson of the Committee on Health Hon. Omona. For the whole of last week, the Bill has been appearing on the Order paper but not talked about until Thursday that the report done by the committee on health after their study/scrutiny about the Bill was tabled. The Committee report recommends that parliament retains clause5 of Counseling to be conducted by trained HIV counselors, proposes that HIV testing be subjected to persons convicted or charged of a sexual offence and also recommends that parliament retain clause5 of Counseling to be conducted by trained HIV counselors. The report shows that the committee recommends that clause 41 of criminalization of intentional transmission of HIV be maintained one thing that we totally refute because of the likely negative implications it may cause.
The speaker however differed the debate on the Bill to next week before adjourning parliament.
At this time we call upon everyone to do anything that can create a difference – including lobbying your Mps and friends in parliament to delete the clause on criminalization. Ask your members in the constituencies to send messages to their respective MPs to delete the clause on criminalization because it is likely to impact negatively on government programs and deter access to prevention and treatment services. We have 100 slots in the public gallery and please join us as the house debates on the report.
