A non-profit human rights organisation in Nigeria under the auspices of Lawyers Alert on Friday commemorated the World TB Day to raise awareness on Tuberculosis and educate people not to discriminate against victims.
LA is assisting persons affected by TB in accessing free legal services in situations when their rights have been violated.
This is coming on the heels of the 2023 world TB day marked globally.
The organisation in a statement signed by its President, Rommy Mom, and TB Focal Person, Peace Okeshola, said Lawyers Alert 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 and human rights in TB Response.
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.
Lawyer Alert in the statement to commemorate this year’s edition of World TB Day on Friday harped on the need to strengthen TB movement and the use of law and 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.
“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.
“The Deadly Divide” is a call to action on TB that focuses on six key Areas of Action, based on the five key demands that TB communities presented at the United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB in 2018, with the addition of a sixth Area of Action on COVID-19.
These include reaching all people through TB detection, diagnosis, treatment, care, and prevention; making the TB response rights-based, equitable, and stigma-free, with communities at the center; accelerating the development of, and access to, new tools to end TB; investing the funds necessary to end TB; and committing to multisectoral accountability and leadership on TB; as well as leveraging COVID-19 as a strategic opportunity to end TB.
In order to implement a human-rights-based approach to TB, Lawyers Alert called for collective efforts to ensure that laws and policies are consistent with the principles of human rights and social justice; prohibit stigma and discrimination against people with TB and TB key and vulnerable populations (KVPs), and ensure an enabling environment with legal rights to access TB prevention, diagnosis, treatment, care, and support that is acceptable.
