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Forced sterilisation

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DA calls on Government to act on Commission for Gender Equality’s recommendations

Dear MyPE

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the release of the Commission for Gender Equality’s (CGE) investigation report into the forced sterilisation of women living with HIV/Aids in South Africa. The report was presented to the portfolio committee on women, youth, and persons with disabilities today.

The report, which investigated 48 complaints across 15 hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, found that:

  • Women living with HIV have been unfairly discriminated against because their rights to choose their own methods of birth control have not been respected;
  • They were therefore forced and/or coerced into being sterilised as they are not being provided with adequate knowledge before being asked to consent to sterilisation; and
  • The complainants were subjected to cruel, torturous or inhuman and degrading treatment.
  • The report also lambasted the Department of Health (DoH) for not recognizing the devastating impact that sterilisation can have on women who have not consented.

The DA agrees with the CGE that lack of consent is one of the biggest issues with regard to forced sterilisation. Consent forms are often inadequate, incomprehensible and not properly explained and the process is rushed without the patient fully understanding what the procedures are.

The DA will today write to the chairperson of the portfolio committee on women, youth and persons with disabilities to request a joint meeting with the portfolio committee on health where the DoH accounts to Parliament for this gross violation of human rights.

The ball is now in the department’s court to ensure that the CGE’s deadlines and recommendations are met and implemented without delay. These recommendations include that the DoH:

  • Interrogate and scrutinise the provisions of the Sterilisation Act and interrogate consent forms for sterilisations to determine whether they provide for informed consent;
  • Revise consent forms in line with the Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics;
  • Consent forms be printed in all the official languages; and that
  • Patients be given a ‘cooling-off’ period to fully consider the risks and consequences surrounding sterilisation.

The DA also calls on the DoH to institute a full investigation to ascertain how many other hospitals have been coercing women to be sterilised. It is unconscionable that the DoH would oversee the forced sterilisation of women and they should be held fully accountable for this deplorable treatment of women.

Regards

Nazley Sharif MP
DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities

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