Ending Stigma and Discrimination on H.I.V.
One of the biggest challenges for persons affected by HIV/Aids is reducing the stigma and discrimination to people living with the disease. One organization is hoping to decrease the violation of rights of this population is the Central American Network of People with HIV. Today, REDCA+ launched a virtual platform for registration and follow-up complaints about the violation of the human rights of people with HIV. We stopped in at today’s launch and spoke with Diego Grajales of REDCA+ Belize.
Diego Grajales, Focal Point, REDCA+ Belize
“What we launched today was the platform for the reporting of human rights violations for persons living with HIV and key populations living with HIV. Essentially, it is to grasp the cases of violations that are done at the work place, at the medical centers, within the community. And to address them, we have a legal advisor in El Salvador who will be leading directly these cases and through the focal point and other partners here in Belize, we will be targeting the cases. We could also take reports from other key populations; such as trans-populations, MSMs, lesbians and then we would refer them to the organizations for follow up. But if in the case that it is case of a person living with HIV then we take the lead on the case.”
Diego Grajales
Reporter
“And how safe is the site in terms of the secureness of my data?”
Diego Grajales
“Ok. So the site is a security certified site. It is a well-protected site. Even when entering the complaint, it has some security questions which will ask, for example, are you a robot – in the case of a hacker and even before entering the system it will ask for only things that humans can relate to.”
Reporter
“What about the response time; say I make a complaint today- how will I get a response from REDCA+?”
Diego Grajales
“The response would be right away. The legal advisor in El Salvador, who we hired to take care of all of these cases, and so we will give a response right away and do follow up; we will get in contact with the person and ask if they have any evidence and then go ahead from there.”
Andrea Polanco
“What pushed you guys to launch this platform here in Belize; is it a move you are doing across Central America or are there complaints that you guys were receiving and you felt you needed to do this in a formal manner?”
Diego Grajales
“It was done through consultations with the LGBT persons with HIV; with persons living with HIV in general. And we asked about the necessities and there was a clear need that there was a lot of human rights violation and nothing being done because there is not a culture of reporting these violations. So, a lot of the activities around this new grant until 2019 will mainly focus on advocacy and human rights violations.”
The site is up and fully functional for users to log complaints at www.redca.org. It is available in Spanish and English, and REDCA+ says it is user friendly.
