Abstinence-Only Strategies Said to Undermine Anti-AIDS Work in Uganda
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WASHINGTON, D.C., Mar 30 (OneWorld) - U.S.-funded abstinence-only programs put millions of young Ugandans at risk of AIDS by denying them information about proven methods to protect themselves, instead offering them unproven advice to abstain from sex until they are married, a leading rights watchdog said Wednesday.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said this violated the ''human right to information, to the highest attainable standard of health, and to life.'' U.S.-based Christian groups and their political allies long have promoted the programs in Uganda, elsewhere overseas, and at home. The abstinence-only approach began to take root in U.S. aid policy under President Ronald Reagan. This year, Washington has budgeted some $8 million for abstinence-only programs in Uganda alone under President George W. Bush's global AIDS plan. Proponents credited the approach with helping Uganda's young women and men put off their first sexual encounter until some time after their 16th and 17th birthdays, respectively, where once the average young person became sexually active at age 13. More than one million Ugandans out of a total population of around 26 million are infected with the HIV virus, which causes AIDS, and a million more have died since 1982, according to government and international figures. The government in Kampala has received kudos from far and wide for making Uganda one of the few countries to lower its HIV infection rate--from 15 percent in 1992 to around 6 percent in 2002. That success is in jeopardy because of the current almost exclusive focus on abstinence, Human Rights Watch warned in its 80-page report, ''The Less They Know, the Better: Abstinence-Only HIV/AIDS Programs in Uganda.'' ''These abstinence-only programs leave Uganda's children at risk of HIV,'' said Jonathan Cohen of the HRW HIV/AIDS program and a co-author of the report. ''Abstinence messages should complement other HIV-prevention strategies, not undermine them.'' Officially, the U.S. and Ugandan strategy for fighting AIDS in the East African country is summarized by the popular initials ABC--for ''Abstinence, Be Faithful, use Condoms.'' HRW, however, said condoms were being left out of the equation, especially for young people. Critical HIV/AIDS information was being removed from school curricula, including information about condoms, safer sex, and the risks of HIV in marriage, HRW said. Draft secondary-school materials included false statements to the effect that latex condoms were ineffective at blocking HIV and further described pre-marital sex as a form of ''deviance.'' HIV/AIDS rallies sponsored by the U.S. government spread similar falsehoods, the report said. HRW said teachers told its investigators that U.S. contractors had instructed them not to discuss condoms in class because the new policy was ''abstinence only.'' Additionally, President Yoweri Museveni publicly condemned condoms as inappropriate for Ugandans, leading some AIDS educators to stop talking about them. First Lady Janet Museveni assailed groups that teach young people about condoms and called for a national ''virgin census'' to support her abstinence agenda, the report added. Ugandan officials told reporters the government remained committed to the ABC approach. HRW may have based its report on ''hearsay,'' they said. HRW said that Ugandan public health experts, physicians, and AIDS groups had expressed concern about the current and future consequences of what effectively was proving to be a switch to an abstinence-only program. Those fears were well grounded, HRW said. Abstinence programs have been used in the United States since 1981 and independent studies have shown them to be ineffective and potentially harmful, according to the watchdog's report. Last July, the Maryland-based Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) faulted the Bush AIDS plan not only for favoring religious ideology over established ''best practices'' in HIV prevention but also for lacking transparency and limiting affected people's say in developing country operations strategies in numerous African nations. Governments and charities were under ''enormous pressure...to conform to U.S. ideologies rather than field realities in order to secure U.S. funds,'' said Jodi Jacobson, executive director at CHANGE, which analyzes the impact on women and implications for health of U.S. policies and aid programs. |
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