Nigerians have been cautioned to stop discriminating against Persons Affected by Tuberculosis.
This is coming on the heels of the 2023 world TB day marked globally to raise awareness of the disease and educate people not to discriminate against victims.
The theme of this year’s world TB day is “YES! We Can End TB”, which reinforced the determination to end TB by 2030 and reach the Sustainable Development Goals.
The TB Focal Person at Lawyers Alert, a non-profit human rights organization, Peace Okeshola, said the organization is assisting victims in accessing free legal services in situations when their rights have been violated.
The President of Lawyers Alert, Rommy mom said the organization in partnership with Stop TB Partnership under the Challenge Facility for Civil Society is carrying out an intervention in “TB Movement and use of the law & human rights in TB Response.
Lawyer Alert in a statement to commemorate this year’s edition of World TB Day on Friday said harped on the need to strengthen TB movement and the use of law & human rights in TB response.
According to the statement “this year’s campaign aims to contribute to boosting TB awareness and ensure the endorsement of a strong political declaration and maximum participation at the upcoming UNHLM on TB in September 2023.”
“Currently, in commensuration with this year’s World TB day celebration and in line with the theme of World TB Day YES! We Can End TB’, Lawyers Alert is creating more awareness of the disease, ending discrimination against PATB.”
“In the process of creating the necessary awareness, Lawyers Alert leverages its online tool called LADOCT designed for collating data on TB and PATB discriminations. The data collated are tailored towards evidence-based advocacy.”
“The year 2023 is critical for all of us to engage in tuberculosis (TB) work and in line with the mandate of Stop TB Partnership, the year is championed as the ‘year of hope’ to get full support, attention, and energy for a collective ‘YES! We Can End TB’. The theme brings attention to TB and our collective power to end TB by 2030 and therefore reach the Sustainable Development Goals.”
Lawyers Alert said, “There are several key areas to focus on such as financial needs to scale up implementation and speed up research and development of new tools including a new TB vaccine, access to new rapid molecular diagnosis and to new shorter and more efficient treatment regimens, TB prevention, TB in children, strengthening and funding Communities, Rights, and Gender (CRG) work.”
The organization said promotion and protection of human rights are central to ending TB. Noting that a human-rights-based approach to TB is grounded in international, regional, and domestic law.
