Kampala – The International Community of Women living with HIV in Eastern Africa (ICWEA) found 72 out of 744 HIV-positive women surveyed had been sterilised.
It said in a report on Thursday in Kampala that the 2015 study carried out in nine districts of Uganda by ICWEA, revealed that 20 of them had been forced to undergo the procedure, or it had happened without their consent.
Hajarah Nagadya of ICWEA said that 18 of the 20 forced sterilisations had been carried out in government hospitals, and two cases occurred in private clinics.
“These women need psychological support such as counselling because a lot is going through their mind.
“Others want to consider a legal action, go to court and have the government compensate them,’’ she said.
The ICWEA report said most violations of women’s sexual and reproductive health rights, including forced sterilisation, occurred during childbirth, particularly when women were delivering by Caesarean section.
The report said that health workers have access to women’s bodies and the power to do what they believe is right for women living with HIV, without asking for consent.
The survey found that sterilised women often suffered anxiety due to failure to conceive, feelings of worthlessness and feeling outcast from their families and communities.
The report also showed that sterilisation could affect sexual relations including reduced sexual desire and painful intercourse.
“Forced or coerced sterilisation among women living with HIV is a global concern.
Some of the first cases related to HIV/AIDS to be documented were in a 2007 study in Namibia conducted by International Community of Women living with HIV/AIDS (ICW).
The study found that three of 30 participants in a training project for young women living with HIV said they had been sterilised without their informed consent.
“In 2012, a Namibian court ruled that state hospitals illegally sterilised three HIV-positive women.
“The women were presented with sterilisation forms just before or after giving birth, and weren’t told what they were signing, the ruling said.
It said that the judge did not feel there was sufficient evidence to prove that it was a discriminatory practice against women living with HIV.
The ICWEA report said In Uganda, none of the 20 women who underwent forced sterilisations had sought legal redress and said they felt there was no one to support them.
“I have not heard of any organisation or laws for addressing my problem,” one of the women was quoted as saying in the report.
“I think the government should put in place a law and sensitise women about the issues related to sterilisation and the laws that can support women living with HIV.”
A spokesman for Uganda’s Ministry of Health said it was not government policy to sterilise women living with HIV/AIDS.
Asuman Lukwago, Permanent Secretary at the ministry, described forced sterilisation as a criminal offence.
He, however, said that there may be exceptional circumstances in which doctors may decide to sterilise women if they believed their lives would be in danger in pregnancy.
According to UNAIDS 2015 estimates, Uganda has an HIV prevalence of 7.1 percent among adults aged 15 to 49. An estimated 790,000 women aged 15 and over are living with HIV in the east African country
But in neighbouring Kenya, where similar cases of forced sterilisation have been reported, a group of women who had undergone forced or coerced sterilisation were helped by lawyers in 2014 to sue the government. (Reuters/NAN)