HIV/Aids, it is now the 4th leading cause of death for Belizeans and while there is no one solution to tackling the problem, Belize will soon have a national policy on HIV/Aids which promises to take on all facets of the disease from the medical to the legal. Today the national aids commission took the draft of the policy to stakeholders in Belize City to get feedback before sending it to Belmopan. Ambassador Dolores Balderamos-Garcia says that while the law can't stop the spread of HIV and Aids, it can certainly help.
Dolores Balderamos-Garcia,
"The main points in the policy, as we hope to provide it to government, is a human rights approach or what you call a rights based approach to fighting HIV/Aids in Belize. And this is stressing fundamental rights of people and treating people the way anyone would want to be treated. So we will be looking at issues of say screening blood, issues of confidentiality in the health system, issues of how we look at vulnerable groups for example, and also we would like to get as much input on adopting what we call the voluntary counseling and testing approach to fighting HIV/Aids."
"I do believe that with this policy and the recommendation for legislation, we will lobby government to act as quickly as possible and we believe the policy will create the kind of environment that will be most conducive to fighting the epidemic because it will be based on respect for fundamental human rights."
Consultations have been held in all other districts and a modified version national policy should be presented to cabinet by mid-January.