More than 117 international health and human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have condemned Egypt for arresting and prosecuting people living with HIV.
The crackdown began in October 2007, when a man stopped by police during an argument disclosed his HIV-positive status. He was arrested and interrogated, the first of at least 12 men to have been targeted in the widening ‘campaign.’ All have faced the charge of ‘habitual practice of debauchery,’ which in Egyptian law includes consensual sexual activity between men. On April 9, a further five men were convicted and handed three-year sentences.
The charges themselves are, however, the more civilised end of Egypt’s current policy. More disturbing are the details emerging of the abuse, violence and torture being meted out to those who have been arrested. Of particular concern to international health and human rights organisations are the actions of doctors from Egypt’s Forensic Medical Authority, who have subjected suspects to HIV tests without their consent. Those tested positive were chained to their hospital beds for the ‘protection of the public,’ while doctors carried out forced and abusive forensic anal examinations to ‘prove’ that homosexual conduct had occurred. Human Rights Watch notes that such examinations are not only medically spurious, but when conducted without consent on incarcerated individuals, constitute a form of torture.
Hafez Abu Saada of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, is one of many voices protesting that the laws under which the men have been charged are in themselves a violation of the international covenant on civil rights, to which Egypt is a signatory. In addition, states Saada, the laws violate Egypt’s own constitution, which ‘guarantees the right to privacy and individual freedom.’
Also of concern are the sexual and public health consequences of this crackdown.
Don Baxter, head of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO), told OUTinPerth, ‘Treating people who are living with HIV/AIDS as though they are criminals violates international law, and it drives the epidemic further underground. Outreach, care, and prevention are the answers, not arbitrary arrests and unjust prosecutions. These arrests will do devastating damage to Egypt’s attempts to confront the epidemic.’ AFAO has written to Egypt urging them to cease with the current course of action and ensure that criminal justice officials are appropriately trained on the medical facts regarding HIV/AIDS.
As Hossam Bahgast, head of the Egyption Initiative for Personal Rights observes, ‘Police and prosecutors think they are protecting the public, but actually this is the best way to endanger public health by driving vulnerable communities underground.’
