Kampala, Uganda — The Constitutional Court in Kampala on Tuesday, June 7th started hearing the petition against the HIV Prevention and Control Act, 2015 after six years of filing.
The law passed in 2014 was in 2016 challenged by the Uganda Network on Law, Ethics and HIV/AIDS (UGANET) together with Prof. Ben Twinomugisha of School of Law, Makerere and Lilian Mworeko Executive Director of International Community of Women Living with HIV Eastern Africa (ICWEA) on behalf of the people living with HIV and HIV Law coalition.
Speaking to the press on Tuesday at Uganda Museum after the first hearing of the petition, UGANET’s Head, Advocacy and Strategic Litigation, Owomugisha Immaculate said as HIV Law advocates, they strongly challenged the impugned Act since its passing in 2014.
“Today, we presented our case, the attorney general responded, we filed our submission and served them and also responded but late. They served us today morning so we could not proceed because the judges had not read their response and as the legal team from our side and court adjourned the case to 14th June.”
According to her, The Act in its current form puts stringent punishments for HIV nondisclosure, exposure, and transmission, which the community of people living with HIV and CSO HIV law coalition find unfair and if not addressed by the court, will hinder people from accessing HIV related services