UAE prepares draft law to end HIV/AIDS discrimination

LONG MARCH: HIV/AIDS awareness campaigners at a recent gathering in New York. (Getty Images)

A draft law is being prepared to make it illegal for employers to discriminate against people with HIV/Aids in the UAE, particularly in the area of employment, UAE daily The National reported on Monday.

Dr Nada al Marzouqi, head of the National Aids Programme, said the proposal would be sent to the Federal National Council for consideration before the end of this year, the paper said.

The proposal is part of an effort by the Government to bring the subject of Aids into the open and remove the stigma that still surrounds the disease and its victims, it said.

There are no laws protecting the rights of a UAE national with the disease and all expatriate workers must be tested for HIV/Aids before they can be granted residency visas. Those who test positive must return to their home countries.

UAE nationals starting new jobs also have to undergo medical examination.

At the same time, however, there is no requirement for tourists visiting the UAE to take a test, and with the country now a major tourism destination, the potential for the disease spreading has increased, the paper said.

The UAE has been criticised by UN officials and campaign groups for having HIV/Aids policies which, it was claimed, violate human rights.

Most recently, the Government was criticised for not honouring its commitments to the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/Aids, for failing to submit data to the UNAIDS 2008 Report on the Global Aids Epidemic.

Dr Marzouqi said experts had examined various situations in which patients may be discriminated against, but that employment was the biggest problem area.

She said she has heard of cases of employers refusing to offer jobs to applicants because they had HIV.

"The employer will not say, 'It is because of your condition', they will say it is because of something else," the paper quoted her as saying. 

The paper quoted Dr Khaled Alloush, the UN Development Programme resident representative, as saying that anything that increases education about Aids will help.

Once the proposal is drafted, it will be passed to the FNC to be made law. No likely timetable for legislation following submission to the Federal National Council was mentioned.

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READERS' COMMENTS

HIV and employment in the EAU
Posted by Star Z, London, UK on Wednesday 19 November 2008 at 07:55 UAE time

HIV is widely misunderstood. Often positive people live a normal life without any medication without curtailing their productivity. Employers should be encouraged to be objective, as hould meddical insurers and society at large. It is a vast web of inter-mingling issues. HIV has no predictable path to illness and stopping someone contributing based on mere speculation is an outrage likely to produce a vast global underclass in future, trained but unemployable. A travesty.

Dicrimination of HIV+ people
Posted by John, Berlin, Germany on Tuesday 18 November 2008 at 16:50 UAE time

The UAE live in the middle ages. To date no one really knows if HIV even is causing AIDS.

Barring expat workers from working in UAE if they test HIV+ only contributes to the scare mongering.

Does the EU require UAE nationals to undergo testing? NO! Perhaps they should reconsider - and send all UAE nationals home if they test positive, using a test that can cause a positive test result on more than 60 other conditions.

I think the UAE should be ashamed and embarrassed to uphold a law that so obviously discriminates and violates basic human rights.

Draft Law against discrimination
Posted by rirani, Lebanon on Thursday 30 October 2008 at 14:10 UAE time


The U.A.E is a great success story and to continue with such leadership and achieving longterm goals the issue of discrimination against deseases such as AIDS ,Hepatitis B/C should be passed as a law.

Education
Posted by A.L.S, Dubai on Wednesday 29 October 2008 at 09:19 UAE time


All well but the Bill will not resolve the true problem. The issue in the UAE is the lack of knowledge and understanding about HIV. It is considered to be a taboo and one should not talk about it, same goes for sexual education. The only way to prevent discrimination among anyone is education. UAE whole approach of not allowing HIV+ expats to enter is useless as many UAE locals go abroad and might receive the desease there.

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