Gatavu Audace is a human rights defense attorney in Bujumbura, Burundi, who has witnessed the plight of people living with HIV/AIDS in Burundi’s criminal justice system. These experiences moved Audace to use his legal skills and connections within the legal community to create a network of pro bono defense attorneys to provide legal counsel to the most vulnerable within the criminal justice system who are without any legal defense.  Audace’s courage to devote his professional life to defending those most marginalized was awarded by International Bridges to Justice with the JusticeMakers Fellowship in 2012. Now two years later, he continues to raise the voices of the hopeless with renewed persistence.

Gatavu Audace

2012 HIV/AIDS JusticeMakers Fellow, Burundi 

September 5, 2014

What made you apply for IBJ’s JusticeMakers Competition?

When I applied for IBJ’s JusticeMaker Competition, I was working with people living with HIV/AIDS and I was shocked by the way they were threatened in prisons. They were {not} considered as normal prisoners because of their incurable disease. I applied therefore to save some from prison as soon as possible.

What were some of the initial challenges you faced in implementing your work?

I faced the challenge of talking to judges that do not {give} consideration to the particular situation of prisoners with HIV/AIDS. There was a serious problem of undue delay of procedures and these people were hopeless! Some of them refused to take their medication and died in prison just because they considered their life already lost!

 What were you able to achieve with your grant of $5,000?

I stood beside hopeless people and raised my voice for their cases. I encouraged some of them not to give up despite the hardships they were experiencing. With the $5000, the prison officials and prisoners and the community knew that these people have value and are worthy. In representing them before the court, I gave them the consideration they longed for since they knew they was HIV positive.

What have you gained from joining the international community of JusticeMakers Fellows?

I am always learning from other Fellows. I now belong to a community of service providers to which I am conscientious of the quality of their work.

 As a recipient of IBJ’s JusticeMakers Competition, what advice would you give to those looking to apply?

 IBJ’s JusticeMakers Competition is an opportunity that is given to YOU to serve YOUR community. Don’t miss it! Try! You’ll never know if you do not try!

The lady, Diama (not her real name), was severely beaten up by her proposed husband, and thrown out of her house. She was told by this young man never to step in the yard again.

IBJ took the case to the police and reminded them that the Constitution states that it is a violation of the right of a woman to be beaten by her husband. IBJ’s legal team argued the case, and finally the police had the young man incarcerated for 24 hours.

On the following day, JusticeMakers Fellow C. Christian Zarweah went to the police station with his colleagues. The case was then withdrawn by some community members.

“This intervention is historical and incredible”

At the community level, the man was ruled guilty. Furthermore, Diama was told that she was free to marry anybody of her choice. Once the community and the defense team had succeeded in handling the case, C. Christian Zarweah decided to learn more about Diama’s history and background.

Diama explained that she had been neglected by family members and consistently put out by her proposed husband because of her status. Diama, who is 30 years old, and her daughter, Ezima, 3, are both affected with HIV/Aids.

Diama’s older daughter died three years ago. No one really knows what the cause of her death was. IBJ immediately connected Diama and her daughter to a nearby hospital, where they began taking HIV/Aids treatment. Additionally, Diama and her daughter are now recipients of IBJ’s monthly ration to the most vulnerable of the affected. Diama has furthermore joined IBJ in creating awareness on the legal rights of the affected. She is now creating awareness among young girls and boys on how they can prevent themselves from being affected.

IBJ’s support and intervention have given hope to a young mother and her child in rural Liberia. Indeed, they now have access to medication and a monthly ration. “This intervention is historical and incredible”, said JusticeMakers Fellow C. Christian Zarweah.

At the last count, the project’s team had visited 4 prisons, 28 police stations and 31 court rooms. No less than 67 prisoners had been interviewed (including men as well as women), along with 23 prison staff, 34 court officials and 18 policemen. Questionnaires had also been distributed to state officials and lawyers who are active in advocacy for the promotion of the rights of prisoners and detainees living with HIV/AIDS. Altogether, 59 lawyers were given questionnaires and 42 responses were received.

Gatavu Audace and the Network of People living with HIV/AIDS representative had a meeting with prison officials in order to discuss the opportunity and the benefit of his project regarding the targeted people, the prison and the entire legal system. The discussions emphasized that prisoners, and especially such vulnerable ones, need a representation, i.e. some kind of link between them and judicial institutions. That is the main challenge that prisoners are facing in general.

Gatavu Audace then moved to consulting 33 people living with HIV/AIDS in the prison. He found out that 18 prisoners were in a pre-trial detention situation. Among these 18 people, 14 cases had not been fixed in court. As for today, 13 sick detainees already have a date of hearing arranged. Gatavu Audace is currently defending cases, and he continues to provide these people with advocacy in order to accelerate the procedures. Currently, Gatavu Audace is in the process of supplying the convicted prisoners with advocacy in order to obtain conditional release for them.

“I lost two close friends and relatives from HIV/AIDS due to lack of legal representation and they were left on their own to die. I want to stop this from happening to others”

JusticeMaker fellow Christian Zarweah and IBJ continue to develop their influence in rural Liberia. In February and March 2013, Christian successfully brought together the legal Defense Team and the legal community to fight against the discrimination and legal issues that people with HIV/AIDs face. The team members and legal community comprised of the District Attorney Cllr. Julius Monluo, Cllr. Cooper Gweh, Magistrate, and Cllr. Tozay. The Police Commander and Representative from the City Major Office (Mr. Belleh) were also in attendance. These law enforcers met for a whole day to strategize how to improve the legal defense of the affected and how to rescue them from the discrimination caused by exposing their HIV/Aids status to the community.   Some health workers have exposed the statuses of people living with HIV/Aids, who receive monthly treatment at the various clinics. In a consolidated effort with Christian, law enforcers engaged the clinic authorities and the general health workers to address this matter.

Legal Defense Team members were assigned to the three courts in the district. It was agreed through a memorandum that any health worker or member of the community who harms, discriminates or exposes individuals living with HIV/Aids would be taken to court. Several workshops were conducted in different communities to spread awareness of the rights of all citizens, including those affected with HIV/Aids

In April, the Defense Team and the legal law enforcers took to the airwaves. Massive awareness and education was carried out on the local FM radio, reaching an audience of 200,000 people. Christian Zarweah has successfully conducted workshops for three selected communities along with the recruited volunteers.

Under Indian law, it is illegal to make claims for diseases that contemporary medicine deems incurable (such as cancer and HIV/AIDS) unless it is scientifically tried and tested, and conclusively proven curative.

Because of the stigma and discrimination suffered, people are more and more numerous to be tend by the quacks who are taking advantage of the situation by promising cures and defrauding unsuspecting people who are infected with these types of virus of large sums of money. The survey conducted in Bhopal by the JusticeMakers team along with discussions with the Madhya Pradesh Network of People living with HIV/AIDS (MPNP+) showed that many quacks in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka are claiming to provide treatment. And a large number of people are running to “babas” and others offering spiritual cures.

It was the case for this woman: Adhira (not her real name) who came to a doctor in Maharashtra after seeing his advert. This doctor had already been held accountable in many other cases but continued to practice despite the court orders.

Scams operated by doctors are well developed. Once a person is tested HIV positive, he is normally put on a 6-month medication after which another test is conducted called P 24 test – P24 being an antigen produced by body when HIV infection starts and gradually goes down–. When the P24 test is again done 6 months later, it shows that the person is cured from HIM and the people are duped. During this time, a huge amount of money is taken from the patient.

Even if the situation is still deeply worrying, some truly optimistic actions have been seen recently in India to fight this phenomenon.

In January 2007, the Supreme Court ordered Kerala-based T.A. Majeed to stop manufacturing, marketing, selling and distributing Immuno-QR, a drug that he claimed cured HIV/AIDS. Patients groups had been fighting the case since 1993.

IBJ’s involvement helps sick people not to be scammed by these quacks and helps them fight against discrimination and stigma imposed by the Indian society because of their illness, through prevention campaigns and significant support to patients.

JusticeMakers fellow in Bhopal, Garima Tiwari spoke about her project, about corruption and discriminatory practices in jails (medical facilities/visitation rights in prisons) during the National Consultation on legal Aid in prison on April 2013 with Ajay Verma (IBJ fellow India) organized by the Human Rights Law Network in Delhi.

With the common action of JusticeMakers fellow: Garima Tiwari and of the entire team of IBJ’s India, IBJ hope to actively help people against stigma and discrimination, reintegrate them into the community and offer them all care they deserve.

«  Helping those affected by HIV/Aids gain respect, rights and values in their society is a wonderful thing ».

Christian Zarweah, IBJ’s 2012 Fellow from Ganta, Liberia continues his massive awareness program across the region on the legal rights of people living with HIV/Aids.

On April 13^thand 14^th, the Defence Team and volunteers carried out awareness and education campaigns on the legal and equal rights of all citizens, including those affected by HIV/Aids. Several people were invited to speak during the event. Councilor Julius Monluo, the District Attorney of the region, spoke on the rights of all citizens including those affected by HIV/Aids. Christian Zaeweah spoke about the moral and legal responsibilities of all citizens to defend those affected by HIV/Aids. He particularly emphasized the role of communities in ensuring that affected people are respected and protected. This campaign covered over two hundred communities and was broadcasted in the different local languages to increase awareness.

This program is part of the larger project that Christian Zarweah is running with the help of IBJ to train attorneys and volunteers to better defend people living with HIV/Aids within Liberia’s criminal justice system. Mr Zarwaeh wants to improve the poor conditions of detainees suffering from HIV/Aids, many of who languish in prison or pre-trial detention because they do not have access to an attorney to plead for their legal and healthcare rights.

JusticeMakers Fellow Thaddeus Nwabueze explained the importance of his projects to participants, highlighting their roles in the plan.

Human rights lawyers and volunteers attended the meeting, held at the conference hall of the Alliance for Human Rights and Democratic Advocates in Lagos. Thadeus discussed his objectives with project participants, informing them that the project would involve fact-finding visits to prisons, police stations and court houses to retrieve information on the way and manner in which cases of people with HIV/AIDS are being handled. The outcome of their findings will help Thaddeus create a training curriculum for state officials that will increase their knowledge on the best practices and treatment of accused persons living with HIV/AIDS.

Thaddeus also informed lawyers and volunteers of the roles they are expected to play in the project by setting up a project implementation committee and dividing volunteers into three groups. Each group was given the task either to visit prisons, police stations, or courtrooms to interview and administer questionnaires on state officials and other stakeholders to find out how cases of the accused living with HIV/AIDS are being handled.

2008 JusticeMakers Fellow Patrick Dunkwu, far right, also spoke at the event of the importance of JusticeMakers.

The meeting also featured the first Nigerian JusticeMakers Fellow, Patrick Dunkwu, who narrated how his experience as a JusticeMaker has helped him build a sustainable legal aid defender system for prisoners, criminal defendants and other indigent victims of human rights violations. He urged volunteers to lend their support to the project and also pledged his support for the project.

The second phase of Thaddeus’ project is presently ongoing, with volunteers attending courts, prisons and police stations on fact-finding missions on issues relating to accused persons living with HIV/AIDS.

More than 300 men, women, and young adults attended a JusticeMakers programme on HIV/AIDS in the industrial Mandideep area.

More than 300 men, women, and young adults attended a JusticeMakers programme on HIV/AIDS in the industrial Mandideep area.

Protecting and promoting the health rights as well as legal human rights of the community at high-risk and vulnerable to HIV/AIDS is a prerequisite for dealing with the problem of the disease and helping to control its spread. With this in mind, JusticeMakers organized a community outreach drive and awareness camp in the Mandideep Area near Bhopal, an industrial area that has been highlighted as a high-risk area because of the presence of migrant workers and truck drivers.

The area has very low literacy rates, high crime rates, high levels of aggression and violence, social isolation, unemployment, poor child-parental communication, early involvement in risky behavior and a lack of awareness of and accessibility to health services.

The specific objective of this awareness camp was to increase knowledge and understanding about HIV/AIDS and STI; to reduce high-risk behavior amongst the people; to create positive thinking and make people open up to discussing the problems; and finally to discuss the legal issues involved.

Participants of the awareness drive included factory workers, truck drivers, and their families. There were also young boys and girls who took training sessions—in total, around 400 participants attended the programme.

Our trainers included Mr. Dinkar Tripathi, a master trainer who has also conducted various programme on HIV/AIDS, and Ms. Sudha Rathore, the Ward Counselor from the Subharambh-Education, Health and Public Welfare Committee in Mandideep.

Most of the participants were completely unaware about HIV/AIDS, and some had not even heard of it. To break the ice, the movie Amma, which highlighted the issue, was also on the screen. It was important that programme leaders give a brief introduction on family planning before speaking of a highly tabooed subject. After this, the programme started with the basics of HIV/AIDS, causes, symptoms, precautions and available medical facilities.

The methods used in the programme included:

1. Interactive Sessions
2. Movie Screening
3. Poster Presentations
4. Story-telling and experience sharing

At first participants were shy to come out and speak about the issues, but gradually people opened up with various doubts, such as whether AIDS spreads by sitting together or using the same towel. Men and women also had separate sessions so that they might ask different questions.

The programme also featured a discussion on the rights of those suffering with HIV/AIDS and how one should treat them—programme leaders explained human rights as well as various constitutional guarantees. Alienation and stigmatization seem to be deep-rooted because of various myths associated with those suffering from HIV/AIDS, so the programme emphasized an explanation of the rights and legal provisions pertaining to the same. In addition, the programme explained the concept of legal aid.

Relevant educational and informational material was also distributed, and the use of condoms was also promoted. Participants could also receive a list of all the centers where free medical check-up and testing is conducted with full privacy and confidentiality.

This was the first programme that was conducted in that area on this issue and was highly appreciated, as all of this information was new to participants.

Garima Tiwari is a 2012 HIV/AIDS JusticeMakers Fellow working in Bhopal, India. Her project focuses on educating lawyers, prison officers, and police on the rights of people in the criminal justice system living with HIV/AIDS.

« Malgré l’extrême pauvreté, les conséquences des guerres à répétition, la grande discrimination et le défaut d’intérêt des acteurs, il est possible d’accorder une protection juridique effective aux personnes vivant avec le VIH au Sud-Kivu ; il suffit juste d’y croire et d’oser ».

Touché par des problèmes que rencontrent les personnes porteuses du VIH-Sida en matière d’accès à la justice (notamment en milieux ruraux en RDC en général et au Sud-Kivu en particulier), problèmes dus notamment à la grande discrimination dont elles font l’objet, à l’ignorance des violateurs et des victimes, aux coutumes discriminatoires, à l’extrême pauvreté des populations rurales en RDC et à la non-diffusion des dispositions et décisions protégeant les personnes ci-avant reprises dans un document d’accès facile aux acteurs de leur protection, j’ai postulé au prix « Justice Makers 2012 » d’IBJ qui leur est spécialement dédié et ai soumis le projet  intitulé Un taxi pour l’assistance judiciaire gratuite et l’accès  aux droits des  détenus atteints du VIH à la prison de Kavumu dans le territoire de Kabare au Sud-Kivu en République Démocratique du Congo.

Ce projet vise à contribuer à la résolution de la question jusqu’ici peu débattue de la protection juridique et juridictionnelle  des droits des personnes atteintes du VIH  en RDC (par le truchement, entre autres, de l’assistance judiciaire gratuite devant aboutir à contribuer à l’élaboration d’une jurisprudence favorable aux droits de ces personnes, la réalisation d’une étude sur l’état des lieux de la protection législative et juridictionnelle des droits de ces dernières et l’organisation d’un atelier de renforcement des capacités en matière de protection de ces personnes en RDC, en faveur des acteurs judiciaires, pénitentiaires, sanitaires, coutumiers et de la société civile).

Le choix de l’intitulé, un peu curieux,  a été inspiré du constat d’après lequel les besoins des personnes vivant avec le VIH-Sida dans le territoire de Kabare sont énormes et les victimes nombreuses, au point que le seul prix d’IBJ ne servira qu’à amorcer un processus dont la continuation après le délai d’exécution de trois activités prévues s’impose. Tout en comptant sur l’appui d’autres potentiels donateurs, j’ai jugé utile de développer, avec le prix reçu, une activité génératrice des revenus qui seront au final affectés à la réalisation  et à la pérennisation du projet. Le choix a porté sur un taxi au regard de la rentabilité de l’exploitation de ce dernier et de l’éloignement de la juridiction concernée par le projet par rapport à la ville de Bukavu où vivent les Avocats et/ou Défenseurs judiciaires devant assister les victimes (ce taxi pourra donc contribuer à la mobilisation des revenus et au transport des victimes et leurs Conseils de la ville à Kavumu où se dérouleront les audiences et seront formés les acteurs ci-avant repris).

Le gros d’efforts du gouvernement et des ONGs ont été concentrés sur l’aspect sanitaire des problèmes des personnes vivant avec le VIH, mais personne ne s’est, jusqu’ici, intéressé à leur protection juridique et juridictionnelle, en dépit de l’inscription dans le Document de croissance et de stratégie de réduction de la pauvreté du Gouvernement congolais pour 2011-2015. D’ailleurs, même l’assistance médicale n’atteint pas de manière efficace les détenus porteurs du VIH qui sont traités comme tous les autres co-détenus (n’accèdent donc pas aux soins), encore que là qu’une moindre prise en charge médicale est assurée aux détenus porteurs du VIH (par exemple la distribution des antirétroviraux ou l’accès aux services de l’Infirmier ou du Médecin traitant), ceux des milieux ruraux n’y accèdent pas (c’est le cas de la prison de Kavumu ne comportant aucun agent sanitaire dans le personnel pénitentiaire, alors que ne cesse de gonfler le nombre de sa population carcérale).   Le  prix « Justice Makers 2012 »  qui m’a été accordé me permettra donc de lancer le débat en la matière et d’apporter de l’aide à ces personnes.

Depuis novembre 2007, je suis Défenseur judiciaire près les Tribunaux du ressort de la Cour d’Appel de Bukavu, ai assisté beaucoup d’indigents en matière d’accès à la justice par devant les tribunaux de Bukavu et d’Uvira (y compris par devant ses sièges secondaires de Kavumu et Kamituga). Après mes études secondaires en pédagogie générale, j’ai obtenu une licence en Droit Public à l’Université Catholique de Bukavu en RDC où je suis également Assistant d’enseignement et de recherche, un Master 1 en Droit international des droits de l’Homme et un Master 2 en Pratique des organisations internationales et protection des droits de l’Homme à l’Institut des droits de l’Homme de l’Université Catholique de Lyon en France.

Content et fier de l’honneur m’accordé en faisant figurer mon nom sur la liste des Fellows de ce prix au titre de l’année 2012 et me permettant d’accomplir mon rêve qui est celui d’apporter de l’aide aux nécessiteux et vulnérables de ma communauté, je remercie IBJ, les juges et la Fondation Lévi Strauss. Aux autres lauréats et à la grande communauté des Justice Makers, je dis un tout grand merci et, fort de l’appartenance à ce grand réseau, j’espère et souhaite bénéficier de la collaboration des lauréats dans la réalisation des activités de mon projet.

Enfin, je remercie ma famille, mes amis, l’UCB et l’IDHL  d’avoir largement contribué à faire de moi ce que je suis.