In striving to ensure that the right to health is made a reality in Botswana, special attention should be paid to the human rights related barriers that make it difficult for all vulnerable groups to have access to the prevention, care and treatment services that they need.
These human rights barriers are rooted in a number of issues. These could include stigma and discrimination on the basis of disability, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation among others. Access could also be made difficult by social issues such as gender based violence and gender inequality. Human rights barriers may also be perpetuated in the form of harmful practices, policies and laws that are used in the
health care setting to the detriment of vulnerable groups such as mandatory HIV/AIDs testing and lack of informed consent.
In the face of these challenges, our work, seeks to cultivate a human rights based approach to the provision of health care, ensuring that it is available, acceptable and accessible to all, regardless of their background or standing in society. Our work also revolves around ensuring that the health care provided is of good quality and that the underlying determinants of health such as safe drinking water, food and shelter are equally advocated for.
Once a human rights based approach to the provision of care is stressed, vulnerable groups such as women, children, people living with HIV/AIDs (PLWHIV), people with disabilities (PWDs), LGBTI + persons, sex workers, migrant workers and prisoners, among others, will be catered for in general health response. This is the center of all areas of our work.
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to
home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the
world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he
lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he
works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal
justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these
rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.” – Eleanor
Roosevelt
