Foreign prisoners sue govt over ARVS

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The Botswana Network on Ethics Law and HIV (BONELA) and two prisoners have filed a case in the High Court seeking an order mandating the government to provide non-citizen prisoners with life-saving HIV treatment.

Currently, Botswana provides HIV treatment to prisoners who are Botswana citizens, but requires non-citizen prisoners to pay for the treatment themselves. However, they provide these prisoners with treatment for their opportunistic infections.

“It is irrational and counter-productive to refuse to treat HIV foreign prisoners,” said Cindy Kelemi, the Executive Director of BONELA, which filed a supporting affidavit in the case.

Editor's Comment
Human rights are sacred

It highlights the need to protect rights such as access to clean water, education, healthcare and freedom of expression.President Duma Boko, rightly honours past interventions from securing a dignified burial for Gaoberekwe Pitseng in the CKGR to promoting linguistic inclusion. Yet, they also expose a critical truth, that a nation cannot sustainably protect its people through ad hoc acts of compassion alone.It is time for both government and the...

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