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Govt asks lawyers, activists to help...
2008-05-19 09:40:34
By Michael Haonga
The government yesterday urged legal practitioners and human rights activists to go beyond policies and other barriers to help end discrimination of workers living with HIV/Aids and with disabilities.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Youth Development, Dr Ladislaus Komba, said having policies, codes of conduct and legislatures in place is one thing but strict adherence is another.
Dr Komba was speaking at the closure of a three-day African sub-regional judge`s workshop in Dar es Salaam at the weekend.
He called for systematic actions to end stigma and discrimination to workers with HIV/Aids and those with disabilities.
The PS said decent work for workers with HIV/Aids and with disabilities could not prevail by just having good policies and legal Acts, but with practical interpretation and efficient implementation of such policies.
He concurred with Chief Justice Augustino Ramadhan, who said while officiating the opening of the workshop that legal practitioners and stakeholders had to uphold decent work and human rights to end human rights violation.
Dr Komba told judges and other participants from eight countries (Ethiopia, Zambia, Lesotho, South Africa, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania) that three factors are attributable to abuse of human rights.
The first is existence of stigma and discrimination of people living with HIV/Aids, a situation that made them refrain from testing for HIV.
The second is the practice under which disadvantageous groups, like women, children, sex workers, asylum seekers, and drug users became victims of violations of human rights.
He said the last was subjecting women to discrimination, inequality, poverty, indecent cultural practices, domestic violence, restrictions of ownership and transfer of property, as well as problems of inheritance.``
The workshop was co-financed by ILO, Swedish International development Agency (SIDA) and the Irish Aid programme.
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