Africa-Press – Uganda. Pastor Martin Ssempa of Makerere Community Church is under probe over allegations of stigmatising people living with HIV/Aids through his social media accounts.
The Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) petitioned Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) officials after Pastor Ssempa made remarks about then Miss HIV beauty pageant.
In response to the 2020 petition, Pastor Ssempa, in his July 11 defence argued that his social media posts were instead misinterpreted by the civil society organisation and that he was simply enjoying his constitutional right of freedom of expression.
“… I expressed the social media opinions as part of my constitutional right under Article 29 of freedom of conscience and expression, among others,” Pastor Ssempa stated in his July 11 defence.
Adding: “The assertion that the referenced social media opinions are stigmatising to persons living with HIV/Aids, is CEHURD’s own interpretation, made in disregard of the debate that was going on at the time. The issue at hand was whether it was right and good policy to organise beauty pageants on the basis that all or some contestants were persons living with HIV, supposedly to fight stigma.”
He said he objected the use of HIV/Aids as a basis for organising beauty pageants because of the likelihood of lowering the risk perception of dangerous diseases to which he has lost close relatives.
Pastor Ssempa said for the past 25 years, as a pastor of university students, a national moral leader and Aids prevention activist, he has debated and opposed ill-conceived projects such as the vagina monologues, the pageants of Mr Ugly and Miss Curvy, which he claims were all banned after his ideological contestation.
For this, Pastor Ssempa claims he was voted as the most influential clergy, especially among the youth in the area of HIV/Aids and given an award by President Museveni and Parliament.
The civil society organisation in its complaint to the Equal Opportunities Commission had indicated that they had observed several stigmatising Twitter posts in regard to people living with HIV/Aids.
“CEHURD has on several occasions observed, and received information about disparaging and stigmatising posts and comments made on various social media platforms, especially on Twitter. These posts may be discriminatory and an affront to the dignity of persons living with HIV/Aids which is contrary to Articles 21 and 24 of the Constitution,” the complaint read.
Adding: “Whereas social media users have a right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 29 (1) of the Constitution, this right is not absolute and therefore, its enjoyment should not in any way prejudice fundamental rights of others including the right to equality and non-discrimination.”
But Pastor Ssempa also argues that to hold pageants for specific categories, especially if the winner stands prizes such as cars, money and trips to overseas, youth might infect themselves with the virus so as to qualify as contestants.
“Although I fully support efforts to fight stigma or discrimination against persons living with HIV, such efforts must not be devoid of common sense to the extent that they defeat their own purpose,” he indicated.
By press time, the commission had not yet made its decision on whether to reprimand Pastor Ssempa or not.
Stigmatisation
A report launched by the Uganda Aids Commission in April reveals that stigmatisation is still one of the structural barriers that continues to pose a significant health and developmental threat to the country, causing “less than optimal enrolment of people living with HIV into care and treatment”.
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