Promoting the Right to Healthcare Services for HIV-positive Persons with Disabilities in Malawi: Incorporating Disability into HIV Programming

Abstract

African countries at the epicentre of the HIV/AIDS pandemic have been working hard to confront the scourge. Malawi is one of the continent’s most affected countries and has been attempting to remedy the situation by providing healthcare services, promoting sexual and reproductive rights, and putting in place numerous HIV-programming initiatives such as HIV education, prevention, care and treatment. However, persons with disabilities have not been included in this initiative in spite of their vulnerability to the disease and their high rates of exposure to HIV risk factors. Their exclusion from HIV/AIDS programming is a product of the incorrect perception that they are asexual or are not vulnerable to the illness. As a result, the mainstreaming of people with a disability into HIV/AIDS programming has not been taking place. Such mainstreaming should take the form of the reasonable accommodation and adoption of universal design measures which ensure that persons with disabilities enjoy the right to health on an equal basis with others. This article seeks to close this gap in Malawi by calling for the inclusion of disability in HIV programming. To this end, and on the basis of desktop research, it examines the laws and policies that assess the extent to which persons with disabilities are able to participate in the response to HIV. It also considers whether they have access to HIV services that are both customised to their diverse needs and equal to the services available to others in society. The author finds that the failure to mainstream disability into HIV programming is a serious problem that will hinder the fight against the pandemic in Malawi.