Keehn Emily Nagisa, Nevin Ariane
Associate director of the Academic Program at Harvard Law School's Human Rights Program in Cambridge, MA, USA.
National prisons specialist at Sonke Gender Justice in Cape Town, South Africa.
Health Hum Rights. 2018 Jun;20(1):213-224.
South Africa experiences the world's highest HIV burden and one of the highest burdens for tuberculosis (TB). People in prison are particularly vulnerable to these diseases. Globally, and internally in South Africa, increased attention is being paid to HIV and TB treatment and prevention in prisons, with the public health community arguing for reforms that improve respect for the human rights of incarcerated people, for example, by calling for the reduction of overcrowding and unnecessary incarceration. Despite the retributive rhetoric that is popular among politicians and the public, the constitution mandates and recognizes the right of people in prison to humane and dignified conditions of detention. These values are diffused through law and policy, supported by an independent judiciary, and monitored by a small but vigilant prisons-focused human rights community. These factors enable the courts to make decisions that facilitate systemic improvements in prison conditions-counter to popular sentiment favoring punitive measures-and increase access to HIV and TB services in detention. This article examines a series of strategic litigation cases that illustrate this process of change to remedy disease-inducing and rights-violating conditions in South African prisons.
南非承受着世界上最沉重的艾滋病毒负担，也是结核病负担最高的国家之一。监狱中的人群尤其易感染这些疾病。在全球范围内以及南非国内，监狱中的艾滋病毒和结核病治疗与预防正受到越来越多的关注，公共卫生界主张进行改革，以提高对被监禁者人权的尊重，例如，呼吁减少过度拥挤和不必要的监禁。尽管惩罚性言论在政治家和公众中很流行，但宪法规定并承认监狱中的人享有合乎人道和有尊严的拘留条件的权利。这些价值观通过法律和政策得以传播，得到独立司法机构的支持，并受到一个规模虽小但警惕性高的关注监狱问题的人权团体的监督。这些因素使法院能够做出有助于系统性改善监狱条件的决定——这与倾向于惩罚性措施的公众情绪背道而驰——并增加在押人员获得艾滋病毒和结核病服务的机会。本文审视了一系列战略诉讼案件，这些案件说明了为纠正南非监狱中导致疾病和侵犯权利的状况而发生的这一变革过程。
