Sadc governments should reconsider decriminalising public health challenges like abortion, drug use, transmission of HIV and AIDS and homosexual as use of the law did not help in curbing the vice, Sadc Parliamentary Forum president and Speaker of Seychelles Parliament, Dr Patrick Hermine has said.
Dr Hermine, who is a medical practitioner by training, said there was need for advocacy among other strategies as part of effort to promote value addition on sexual reproduction health and rights.
The Sadc PF president said this while addressing Members of Parliament from the region during a joint session of Sadc regional standing committees for capacity strengthening on criminalisation and stigmatization of public health challenges.
He said criminalisation of abortion, for example, pushed women underground where many of them would die of diseases or other complications.
He reaffirmed what Sadc PF resolved in Botswana recently that criminalizing transmission of HIV and AIDS was not the best way to go.
Dr Hermine said he was convinced that drug use was caused by addiction.
“It is my humble opinion that drug addiction is a disease like diabetes and high blood pressure. It is the height of folly to believe that this public health issue can be tackled through legislation,” he said.
Dr Hermine asserted that lesbians and gays were born with the habit.
- Herald
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