It was presented «The Denounce Center of HIV/AIDS and Human Rights» of the network of NGOs working on HIV/AIDS in Paraguay, network from which the Asociación Unidas en la Esperanza (UNES) is member.
The center is to manage denounces of violations of the Law on HIV/AIDS and of human rights linked to this law, giving treatment, derivation and the corresponding follow-up.
«This Center was created because we saw the need to have a place where to denounce. We were tired of going to the police and have no response,” said Maria Lucila Esquivel, president of UNES, one of the coordinators organizations, responsible for the Health Area within the Center.
The existence of a Law in Paraguay setting out rights, obligations and preventive measures related to HIV/AIDS does not ensure the absence of discrimination to people living and coexisting with this disease.
«From the Center we work to make known the law and for people to claim for their rights. Few months ago, the network of organizations that are part of the Center and that have been working together for some time, went to Alto Paraná to claim for some kids who had been excluded from school for having HIV. We managed to reverse this measure, but we cannot let this to happen again”, said Esquivel.
Aimed at transgender people, people living with HIV/AIDS, men who have sex with men, female sex workers and users of injecting drugs, the Center will receive denounces from victims or third parties to identify a situation of discrimination and/or violation of human rights where others are affected.
«Consultations are free, and if the complainant would like to preserve the anonymity, one of the organizations of the network will denounce in his name», said the president of UNES.
This initiative came as a claim of civil society organizations facing the repeated abuses to human rights, and it is a project wide and open to the community. «We do not want to turn the Center into a closed office, we want that people that work here as psychologists, lawyers, and social workers are on the street, with people, because there is where things happen», concluded Esquivel.
Impact on Center: Corresponsales Clave