The National Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS has appealed to the Parliament of Uganda to scrap out provisions on mandatory testing for HIV out of the HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Bill 2010.

The bill has provisions that which would make it mandatory for every Ugandan to test for HIV/AIDS in case the bill were to be passed in its current form.

The Executive Director of NACWOLA, Agnes Apio while presenting a petition to the Speaker of Parliament to block these provisions in the bill said that mandatory testing provisions in the bill are unnecessary and undermine an individual’s right to privacy.

Apio says if enacted it in its current form with its proposition of criminalizing failure to have HIV tests, it will contravene the international legal practices for instance Guideline 4 of the International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS which do not support the aspect of mandatory testing in the bill.

She says besides mandatory testing is not the best means of achieving greater levels of testing as the government can opt for better alternatives to have more people go for testing.

The speaker of Parliament Edward Kiwanuka Sekandi has said parliament will take into consideration views of NACWOLA in relation to the provisions on mandatory testing though he adds that since the bill is still under discussion it will be for the various stakeholders to decide whether these provisions are omitted or maintained in the bill depending on their input in the enactment of the bill.

The HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Bill is at the committee stage in Parliament.

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By Zacharia Tiberindwa, Ultimate Media