Sex and minority rights

Monitor Editor | Monday September 1, 2014 10:11

Homosexuals and sex workers have been singled out as  some of the neglected groups that continue to defeat HIV/AIDS war because they cannot approach medical services without fear of being punished for their illegal sexual activities. Often, those who engage in sexual activities with people of the same sex are not catered for at all in the local medical facilities and suffer in silence.

That prostitutes and same sex groups are a minority group cannot be disputed. That the majority of Batswana shun these groups cannot be disputed either. Anytime and on any day, voices calling for the discrimination of these groups are sure to be heard all over Botswana. Yet, experts in the fight against HIV and AIDS have advised  Botswana that  to  win the HIV war within these neglected groups, it should come up with laws that recognise these people and laws that  aim to  reach out to them, against the current laws that punish these groups. Indeed going to kgotla’s can only procrastinate our efforts to  take the HIV/AIDS fight to another level. We will just be just going in circles. Various Ministers in the past and even recently returned from these kgotla meetings regretting why they even raised the subject, after getting a barrage of attacks from angry  and intolerant Batswana. Many still believe that legalising these would encourage people to engage in these practices.

They hardly view the envisaged steps as efforts towards protecting these vulnerable groups as well as reducing infections from these groups to the larger public. Minority rights cannot be discussed by a majority that continues to discriminate against the same groups.  It is high time government  considers the advice from such bodies as the National AIDS Coordinating Council, Botswana Network of Ethics and People Living With AIDS, Ditshwanelo, and even High Court decisions, which continue to emphasise that minority rights are human rights too.

According to scholars  anti-homosexuality laws don’t just violate human rights—they might worsen the HIV/AIDS epidemic.  While many countries and communities are expanding civil rights to prostitutes and homosexual communities,  Botswana continues to  criminalise the  groups while at the same time the HIV prevalence in these groups  presents a dire public health problem.