Human rights are fundamental to any response to HIV and AIDS. This has been recognised since the first global AIDS strategy was developed in 1987. The promotion and protection of human rights are necessary to empower individuals and communities to respond to HIV and AIDS, to reduce vulnerability to HIV infection and to lessen the adverse impact of HIV and AIDS on those infected and affected.

The incidence and spread of HIV and AIDS are disproportionately high among groups who already suffer from a lack of human rights protection, and experience discrimination. This includes groups that have been marginalised socially, culturally and economically.

People living with HIV and AIDS or those affected by it will not seek counselling, testing, treatment and support if this means facing stigma, discrimination, and lack of confidentiality or other negative consequences. Discriminatory measures and other coercive actions drive away the people most in need of services.

When human rights are protected, civil society organisations working on HIV and AIDS are able to respond to the pandemic more effectively, fewer people become infected, and PLWHA and their communities can better cope with the disease.

To raise awareness about the links between HIV and AIDS and human rights, and to change existing practices, Yelula/U-khâi has a strong focus on advocacy: helping people to learn about their own rights, and documenting and publicising abuses.

Current focuses for advocacy

Yelula/U-khâi is currently focusing on several main advocacy issues which include:

• Helping orphans and vulnerable children secure access to grants.  Social grants are in a fair number of instances not being accessed within the legally set out time frame post. Yelula/U-khâi has documented cases where applications have not been processed for over 2 or 3 years. Barriers to accessing social grants include the lack of government social workers employed in the regions, and a lack of clarity about who is eligible for grants. The Legal Assistance Centre is currently reviewing documentary evidence to determine how best specific cases can be tackled from a legal standpoint.
• OVC grants being used to pay school fees. In theory, basic education in Namibia is free, but in practice, school development fund contributions, hostel fees and uniforms often serve as an economic barrier to schooling. Current regulations require that learners who are orphans must be fully exempt from paying for contributions to the school development fund if there is no provision for the learner’s education. However, in many instances, vulnerable children accessing grants put in place to help meet their basic needs are being forced to use these grants to pay school development fund contributions. A clear and unambiguous statement from the Ministry of Education would resolve this issue, but is proving difficult to obtain.