Tribun Nigerian, 20 Ocotober 2014

The Association of Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (ASWHAN) has appealed to the National Assembly to urgently pass the Anti-discrimination and Stigmatisation Bill.

Mrs Esther James, ASWHAN Advocacy Officer, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

James, who described the bill as anti-discrimination, denial and stigma against people living with HIV/AIDs, said the passage of the bill would protect the victims from being stigmatised in their neighbourhoods and work places, among others.

She decried the way many women and children have been abandoned by their husbands, fathers and relatives, among others, because of their status.

She, however, attributed the victims' lack of free access to HIV/AIDS preventive antiretroviral drugs on shame, stigma, discrimination and denial, adding that some victims preferred dying in their hideout.

James appealed to Nigerians to show love and live peacefully with HIV/AIDS positive victims, saying that such care would further assist in reducing the prevalence rate of the disease in the country.

According to him, the bill will promote zero new infection, zero discrimination, zero denial and stigmatisation, among others.

"The bill process started in 2004 and at a point, nothing was heard of it. We have been going back and forth on the bill.

"At a public hearing in 2013 in the National Assembly, we were told that before the end of the year, the bill will be passed. We are now in 2014 yet the bill has not been passed.

"What will happen to the bill when there is a change in leadership? Are we going to start all over being with the due process that has kept us since 2004?

"We are appealing to those concerned to ensure that the bill is signed and passed into law because our people in the communities are being stigmatised.

"Our people can no longer come out of their houses because of stigma; we have women whose husbands have been thrown out of their houses because of stigma, women who in their compounds have been called different names because of their status.

"If this bill is not passed, more people will remain be in their hideout and the rate of infection will be high. With the passage we are looking at zero discrimination, zero death, zero new infections,'' James said.

The officer also said that a portion of the bill stipulates certain fine for those discriminating against HIV/AIDS patients, noting that this would assist in the fight against stigma, discrimination and denial to a standstill.

According to her, it would also enable victims to live a normal life by going on their routine duties freely like every other citizen of the country.

Source: Tribune Nigerian