AEGiS-Bangkok Post: Commission drafting new human rights bill to protect Aids victims

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Commission drafting new human rights bill to protect Aids victims

Bangkok Post - July 1, 2006
Anucha Charoenpo

The drafting of a bill aimed at protecting the human rights of people living with HIV/Aids will be completed and submitted for cabinet approval by the end of the year, said National Human Rights Commissioner Pradit Charoenthaitawee. If approved, it would be the first bill that ensures fairer treatment and better understanding of people with HIV/Aids, said Dr Pradit, chairman of the drafting committee. Thailand currently has more than 500,000 people living with HIV/Aids.

Dr Pradit said the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) decided to draft the bill after receiving a number of complaints from HIV/Aids patients who faced various forms of discrimination. People living with HIV/Aids had been prevented from getting jobs and were unable to get access to basic education and health care services. They were sometimes also detested by people living around them, he said.

"The existing laws on HIV/Aids are obsolete, so there should be a new specific law that could protect the rights of HIV/Aids patients," Dr Pradit said.

Under the proposed bill, compulsory HIV/Aids blood tests for job applicants would be prohibited, while employers who fired infected employees would be prosecuted.

Schools and universities would also be banned from conducting blood tests on students, as there have been reports that some academic institutes have kicked HIV/Aids-infected students out of schools, said the commissioner. State and private-run hospitals would be obliged to provide basic medical treatment for people suffering from HIV/Aids, especially pregnant women infected with the disease.

Many pregnant women did not receive proper pre-natal care and anti-viral drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission, said Dr Pradit.

Kamol Uppakaew of the Thai Aids Treatment Action Group, who has suffered from HIV/Aids for 10 years, said that apart from drafting the law, the NHRC should also focus its work on educating the public and government officials about the disease. It should encourage them to be more open-minded towards HIV/Aids patients, many of whom had isolated themselves from society because they faced fierce discrimination.

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