On 25 February 2016, the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), the Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA) and the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) hosted a meeting on “Advancing HIV and TB Treatment and Prevention in Botswana Prisons.”
In August 2015, SALC and BONELA succeeded in obtaining a court order from the Botswana Court of Appeal requiring government to provide antiretroviral treatment (ART) to all HIV-positive foreign prisoners who meet the treatment criteria in the case of Attorney General and Others v Tapela and Others.
The meeting brought together stakeholders involved in prisoners’ welfare and regional experts in order to share achievements and best practices to ensure the full implementation of the Tapela judgment in Botswana. The meeting forms part of a broader objective of the organisers to build on the success of the Tapela case to improve health services and conditions in the prisons in southern Africa.
