MEDIA ADVISORY: STATE SEEKS TO STOP ENFORCEMENT OF COURT ORDER TO PROVIDE ARVS TO FOREIGN PRISONERS

Gaborone –The Gaborone High Court will tomorrow hear an urgent application brought by the Attorney General who seeks to stay the execution of an order granted by the High Court in August 2014, in which the Government was ordered to provide antiretroviral (ARV) treatment to foreign prisoners. The August 2014 order is currently on appeal in the Botswana Court of Appeal.

The urgent application follows the launch of a separate application by a non-citizen prisoner who has filed contempt of court proceedings against the Attorney General, for failing to comply with the August 2014 order.

The August 2014 order required that all HIV-positive foreign inmates in Botswana be granted effective access to ARV treatment. The Director of Health Services, in the application to stay the order’s execution, states that the country is not prepared logistically and administratively to provide foreign inmates with ARVs, despite that it already provides the treatment to citizen prisoners.

What:            The Botswana High Court will hear an urgent application in the Attorney-General and Others v Tapela and Others v a case about the rights of foreign, HIV-positive prisoners to access HIV treatment.

Where:            High Court, Gaborone, Botswana

When:             8^th April 2015, 09:30am

The Botswana Network on Ethics Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA) legal advisor Ms Keikantse E Phele said, “This is a step backwards in upholding constitutional protections. The State is failing to protect human rights. The stay of execution application comes after the State has failed to comply with an order of Court for almost 7 months.”

Ms Annabel Raw, from the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, which is supporting the prisoners’ case said, “The only urgency in this matter is for HIV-positive inmates who are in need of treatment to be provided with ARVs. The ongoing failure to treat foreign prisoners puts their lives at risk and undermines public health.”

For more information contact:

Keikantse E. Phele, Legal Advisor. BONELA, phelek@bonela.org and bonela@bonela.org; Tel 393 2516, Fax 393 2517

Follow BONELA on Twitter: @ bonela_ethics, and like our Facebook Page: BONELA

Annabel Raw, Health Rights Lawyer, SALC: +27 (0)10 596 8538; +27 82 3495825 (m); AnnabelR@salc.org.za; Follow SALC on Twitter: @Follow_SALC