GHANA – Accra – 28 October 2009 (Public Agenda) - Participants at a day's national seminar on the HIV-AIDS disease have expressed resentment at the insistence on "mandatory test" by some churches before allowing their members to marry.

They said this must be stopped and that the decision to know one's HIV-AIDS status must be left entirely in the hands of the individual. This was due to the fact that church leaders were unable to keep the test findings secret but revealed it to their congregation, thereby creating problems of stigmatization for those with the infection.

They have, therefore, called on church members to refuse to be bullied into doing something that they are not prepared for, adding that, it is also unethical for medical professionals to release confidential information on patients to churches. They have also asked the Ghana AIDS Commission work in conjunction with the Ghana Medical Association and the Ghana Registered Nurses Association to ensure compliance with the National AIDS Policy of 2004.

Additionally, they have advocated for the passage of a law against widowhood inheritance - the practice of replacing a deceased wife with a sister, to safeguard the interests of women.

Providing the platform to brainstorm on the vulnerability of women to HIV/AIDS, the Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre (GSHRDC), Mrs. Dorcas Coker-Appiah, the Executive Director of GSHRDC, said women who are into polygamous marriages were more susceptible to the virus and appealed to such women to go for voluntary counselling and testing. She called for more financial support for people living with the virus to enable them to earn some income to look after themselves and their families or buy drugs vital for their survival.

The workshop, which was attended by people from all over the 10 regions, was organized by the Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre (GSHRDC), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with sponsorship from Womakind World and Department for International Development (DFID) all of the United Kingdom (UK), Comic Relief and African Women Development Fund.

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