ICW project addressing coerced sterilisation in the news
In 2008 ICW Namibia and the Namibian Women's Health Network’s embarked on a fact-finding mission in Namibia to gather data and take steps to demand justice from those individuals and entities that had violated the sexual and reproductive rights of HIV positive women by forcing them or coercing them to be sterilised. These fundamental rights include the rights of HIV positive women to have a safe, healthy, and fulfilling sex life and to determine whether and when to have children. More information about the project.
The Project has lead to considerable coverage by a range of organizations, journals, institutions and individuals - check out the links below.
- African women with HIV 'coerced into sterilisation', by David Smith in Johannesburg, The Guardian UK, Monday 22 June 2009
- Namibian women with HIV 'coerced into sterilisation' in the Mail and Guardian South Africa, Jun 23 2009
- BBC Focus on Africa interview with Esther Sheehama - ICW member from Namibia
- 'HIV+ women in Africa sterilized, stigmatized', By Geoffrey York in the Globe and Mail Canada 2009
- 'Denying us the right to reproduce… Forced and coerced sterilisation of HIV positive women', By Jennifer Gatsi Mallet of ICW, featured in the AIDS Legal Network Quaterly, September/November 2008, page 27-29.
- The Reality Check blog, ‘Sorry, Those Aren't Your Rights: HIV-Positive Namibian Women Face Coerced Sterilization’, written by Aziza Ahmed and Jennifer Gatsi-Mallet of ICW describes ICW Namibia and the Namibian Women's Health Network’s fact-finding mission to gather data and take steps to demand justice. Other Reality Check blogs on the issue - - RH Reality Check has also run a few articles: 1) http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/node/10529 2) http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/reader-diaries/2009/06/16/in-namibia-and-beyond-forced-sterilization-a-human-rights-violation
- ‘Medical violence against women’ article by Bret of Citizen Journalism in Africa (03/12/08) -
- The project is described on South African Women’sNet (19/03/09)
- An article based on a presentation of the project by Jennifer Gatsi Mallet and Veronica Kalambi, is featured in HIV AIDS Policy Law Rev., 2008 Dec;13(2-3):77-8,
- ‘Forced Sterilization Victims Seek Rederess’, Article by Wezi Tjaronda for the National Society of Human Rights (02/18/09)
- ‘HIV+ Women & Forced Sterilization’, blog by Johanna E Bond on IntLawGrrls – Voices of International Law, Policy and Practice (17/03/09)
- ‘HIV-positive and forcibly sterilized: a chilling reality’ article by Kimberly Whipkey for Open Democracy (05/03/09)
- ‘Namibia: Sterilisation Cases Headed for Courts’, article by Wezi Tjaronda for the Namibian newspaper New Era and featured on AllAfrica.com (7/04/08)