Imagine that you are about to have a baby via Caesarian section.  You are being wheeled into an operating room and are handed a stack of forms to sign.  You are distressed and in pain, so you sign the papers handed to you.  Sometime after giving birth you discover that in addition to having signed a consent form to receive a C-section, you have also signed a form authorizing the doctor to sterilize you.  You are HIV-positive.

Fifteen HIV-positive women in Namibia have accused state hospitals of coercing them into being sterilized and are now in court suing the government.  Even though these women signed a consent form to be sterilized, they were not informed of the consent they were giving (“Women Up in Arms Against Forced Sterilization”). 

Going into labor, one plaintiff said, “I was in pain and told to sign.  That is what was in my mind.”  She added that she was in so much pain that she wasn’t in the right mind to ask questions.  Additionally, there was no time—she needed immediate medical attention (“Witnesses Testify in Sterilisation Cases”).  According to the LAC, medical workers allegedly target women who cannot read or write (“Women Claim ‘Forcibly’ Sterilized at State Hospitals.”)

According to court notes of this trial, one plaintiff testified that there was no mention about “removing uterus or womb” on the form she signed, and that her nurse told her that all HIV-positive women have their uterus removed.  Allegedly the nurse did not refer to it as sterilisation, which it was referred to as on the consent form, and the patient did not learn what sterilization meant until after the surgery had been performed. 

According to Amon Ngavetene, the co-coordinator of the AIDS Law Unit of the Legal Assistance Center (LAC), most of these women were not even aware that they had been sterilized.  The LAC is defending the women in court.  After giving birth, Ngavetene says, “some [women] returned to healthcare facilities to access family planning just to be informed that there is no need for them to go on contraception because they have been sterilized.”  Other women have asserted that they had to agree to sterilization in order to access other health services such as C-sections.  (“Campaign against forced sterilization kicks off,” Nangulu Shejavali)

One nurse allegedly claimed that HIV-positive women were being sterilized because “there was no point in having children in the future” for an HIV-positive woman (“Women Robbed of Motherhood,” Wezi Tjaronda).  Yet with the proper drugs and precautions, an HIV-positive woman can have a perfectly healthy baby without passing the virus on to the child.

The LAC writes, “Sterilisation without informed consent violates a woman’s constitutional, regional and internationally protected rights to equality, dignity, non-discrimination, health - which includes the right to make one’s own decision about health care, to found a family and to fair administrative justice, including the right to proper treatment by hospital administration through medical ethics.”

Human rights groups and civil society organizations in Namibia, including the LAC, International Community of Women Living With HIV (ICW), the Namibia Women’s Health Network, AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa, Women’s Solidarity Namibia, the Women’s Leadership Centre, and Sister Namibia, are supporting these women and are protesting this gross human rights violation (“Campaign Against Forced Sterilisation Kicks Off”).  Nevertheless the trials in Namibia are being given limited international press, and most people around the world are not even aware of these serious human rights allegations.  

According to the LAC, these court cases began in October and November of 2009 in the Windhoek High Court and continued through June 1 to June 3.   The case will continue again from September 1 to September 10. http://endforcedsterilisation.wordpress.com/

Written by Meg Armstrong
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