Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 1/22/2004

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U N I T E D N A T I O N S

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Integrated Regional Information Network

CONTENT:

1 - CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Seminar to draw up draft bill on rights,

obligations of HIV/AIDS patients

1 - CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Seminar to draw up draft bill on rights,

obligations of HIV/AIDS patients

BANGUI, 22 January (PLUSNEWS) - A three-day seminar opened on Wednesday in

Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, to debate the

adoption of a draft bill of law on the rights and obligations of

HIV-positive people.

" The seminar aims at drafting an instrument that can protect both

HIV-positive people and the society they live in, " Eugenie Yarafa,

secretary-general of the HIV/AIDs organisation, the Reseau Centrafricain

sur l’Ethique, le Droit et le VIH/SIDA, told PlusNews on Wednesday.

Seminar participants include lawyers, medical doctors, magistrates, social

workers and members of the National Transitional Council, the country's

law advisory body. The seminar was organised by the HIV/AIDS organisation

in conjunction with the UN Development Programme and the national

anti-HIV/AIDS body, the Comite National de Lutte contre le Sida.

Yarafa said that a draft that would be adopted at the end of the seminar

would be forwarded to Justice Minister Hyacinth Wodobode for presentation

to the NTC for approval, before enactment by CAR leader Francois Bozize.

" Magistrates encounter serious problems while handling HIV-related cases, "

Yarafa said.

She added that some of the cases involved AIDS orphans and the issue of

their inheritance. She said that if adopted, the new legislation would

provide for sanctions against people who knowingly infect others with the

HIV virus. Moreover, she said, the draft bill would emphasis the

protection of HIV-positive people’s rights to treatment, education,

employment and others.

" The document is strongly opposed to stigmatisation and discrimination

targeting HIV-infected people, " Yarafa said.

[ENDS]

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