My body, my womb, my rights, my decisions: Feminist advocacy to seek justice for HIV positive women who are victims of forced sterilisations in South Africa

Abstract

abstract Her Rights Initiative (HRI) has been leading feminist and victim-led advocacy, research, and human rights work to seek justice for HIV positive women who are victims of forced sterilisations in South Africa, for more than a decade. The issue of forced and coerced sterilisation of women living with HIV in South Africa was documented in the late 1990s. This violation of the rights of HIV positive women has continued over three decades. The South Africa HIV Stigma Index study by the Human Sciences Research Council and other collaborating partners, found that 7.6% of women living with HIV reported that they were forced into sterilisation. South Africa has more than four (4) million women living with HIV (Cloete et al. 2014). This article seeks to analyse the long unfinished advocacy journey to seek justice for HIV positive women who are victims of forced sterilisations. It will detail the position and the status of HIV positive women in the HIV policy arena and consider the ideology of international HIV and sexual and reproductive rights policy and context and how these factors have enabled and hindered our advocacy efforts. In line with the principles of victim-centred feminist advocacy, I will reflect on the internal, looking specifically at how HRI has framed victim-centred feminist advocacy, and how this has sustained the organising, and more importantly, contributed to gains made so far.