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Health Rights

SALC’s Health Rights programme envisions a region in which the highest attainable standard of mental and physical health is enjoyed equally with full respect for human rights, and where health service users are empowered to enforce respect for their rights.

The Programme has the following objectives:

  • To reform laws, policies and practices that contribute to exclusion and discrimination in the enjoyment of health, including laws that undermine the right to informed consent and HIV criminalisation laws.
  • To remove legal barriers to effective HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria treatment, care and prevention and to rights-affirming mental health.
  • To develop legal protections for the dignity and human rights of people living with HIV and TB and mental health users.
  • To strengthen accountability for discrimination in healthcare settings.
  • To advance the enjoyment of social and environmental determinants of health, particularly for marginalised and vulnerable populations.

On-going cases:

Completed cases:

Publications:

Litigation Manuals & Plain Language Publications:

Submissions

Training Tools:

Research Reports and Policy Briefs:

Advocacy:

Health RightsLesothoOngoing casesSexual and Reproductive Health Rights

Lesotho: Challenging mandatory HIV testing of accused persons and the mandatory death sentence of Persons Living With HIV(PLWH)

SALC is supporting the constitutional challenge of Section 30 and 32(a)(vii) of the Sexual offences Act, which provides for mandatory HIV testing of an accused person upon being charged with the offence and imposes a mandatory death sentence upon conviction pursuant to an HIV positive test. The applicant argues that…
Thabo Buthelezi
24 May 2021
Disability RightsHealth RightsOngoing casesZambia

Zambia: Challenging denial of legal capacity for persons with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities

SALC is supporting a petition by a person with psychosocial disabilities and the Disability Rights Watch (DRW) to repeal Section 4 of the Mental Health Act of 2019 in Katontoka  and Another v the Attorney General. The Petitioners argue that the provision unconstitutionally infringes on the rights to dignity, liberty, freedom of…
Staff Writer
26 Feb 2021
Criminal JusticeHealth RightsMalawiNews

CIVIL SOCIETY CALLS FOR THE URGENT DECONGESTION OF PRISONS AFTER COVID-19 CASES REGISTERED IN CHICHIRI AND MZIMBA PRISONS

We the undersigned organizations reiterate our call for the immediate decongestion of prisons following two confirmed cases of COVID 19 in Mzimba and Chichiri Prison. On 14 July 2020, the Malawi Prison Service registered its first case of COVID-19 at Mzimba Prison where a prison officer tested positive for COVID-19.…
Staff Writer
17 Jul 2020
Criminal JusticeFreedom of Expression, Assembly and AssociationHealth RightsResearch Reports & Policy BriefsRule of LawSADC

SALC Policy Brief: A Legal Overview of the Impact of COVID-19 on Justice and Rights in Southern Africa

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, various countries in the Southern African region have put in place restrictions on gatherings, free movement, commerce and expression. Many of these measures limit human rights and result in criminal sanctions for breach. This policy brief looks at these criminalising provisions within the context…
Staff Writer
26 May 2020