The Kenya Legal & Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS (KELIN) believes in a world where no one lives in fear or oppression; where all have access to decent standard of healthcare and life; a world where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.
To achieve this, we engage in long-term, human based approach work, build resilience, respond to health violation situations, and seek to address the root cause of health violations through our advocacy work.
Our Goal — We advocate for a holistic and rights-based system of service delivery in health and for the full enjoyment of the right to health by all, including the vulnerable, marginalized, and excluded populations in these four thematic areas. In the implementation of our programs and related activities, we utilize a rights-based approach; prioritizing the key principles of people-centeredness, accountability, equality, and non-discrimination.
Since 2001, KELIN has advocated for a rights-based approach to HIV-related strategies and programmes at the national and county level. KELIN has done this through a variety of training programmes, advocacy campaigns, and litigation on matters relating to HIV law and the rights of people living with and affected by HIV.
A recent report by Kelin, Human Rights of Young Adults in the Digital Age in Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, and Vietnam, may inspire similar work in the Caribbean. This study—the largest of its kind to date—draws on 302 interviews with young adults aged 18–30 (including people living with HIV, sex workers, gay men and other men who have sex with men, transgender and gender-diverse persons, or cisgender women), as well as 41 interviews with experts from UN agencies, government, and civil society. It highlights how stigma, poor infrastructure, digital exclusion, and online abuse are blocking access to essential health information and services.
The discussions were led by trusted national community members who were able to reach diverse communities and engage them in frank conversations, including people in remote rural areas. We also interviewed 41 experts from UN agencies, government and civil society. This study builds on our two previous studies and on ongoing policy advocacy.
Findings include:
› Many participants described struggling to get online, due to cost of smartphones and data bundles, lack of Wi-Fi, lack of digital skills, or lack of ability to assess reliable health information. Young women talked more about these issues than young men and described financial dependence on partners or supervision by family members as challenges.
› For people living with HIV and members of stigmatised groups, fears of poor data protection or of being outed to family and the community made them reluctant to seek or share health information online.
› Three quarters of young adults described technology-facilitated abuse, doxxing, stalking, blackmail, and extortion; for some, including gay men and other men who have sex with men in Ghana, and transgender sex workers in Colombia, the abuse moved from online to in-person, and included severe forms of physical violence. Abuse appeared increasingly normalised among young adults.
› Few of the young adults we spoke to had been successful when reporting abuse to online platforms, or in getting access to redress.
› Some were reluctant to report abuse to the police, either because they were not sure whether the abuse was legal; or because laws criminalizing sex work and same-sex sexual relations in their countries meant survivors might themselves face criminal charges; or because of past experiences of police abuse.
› Despite their concerns, study participants expressed resilience, determination and a strong interest in getting training in-person and online about their rights, artificial intelligence (AI), safety, navigating misinformation, and more, tailored to their specific needs; we call this “digital empowerment”. Many had optimistic visions of the future and called for greater accountability and transparency online, to ensure this future is realised.
While their main work is focused on HIV/AIDS, their ways of working with young people can well be applied by those of us focusing on access to, e.g. safe abortion and abortion rights.
They conclude: “It is essential that access to health services is not exclusively reliant on digital access, to avoid locking out those who lack access.”
SOURCE: Digital Health & Rights Project: Paying the Costs of Connection. Human rights of young adults in the digital age in Colombia, Ghana, Kenya and Vietnam, and KELIN-Strategic-Plan-2021-2025_compressed-1.pdf