Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Denied motherhood: forced sterilisation of HIV-positive women as a violation of their human rights

Forced sterilisation of HIV positive women has recently been focussed on in Southern Africa where reports of women who had been sterilised in government hospitals without their consent was made public.2 Sterilisation is defined as a surgical procedure whereby a person could be rendered incapable of...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Apiko, Philomena
Other Authors: Smythe, Dee
Format: Thesis
Language:English
English
Published: Centre for Law and Society 2026
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867613182893228032
access_status_str Open Access
author Apiko, Philomena
author2 Smythe, Dee
author_browse Apiko, Philomena
Smythe, Dee
author_facet Smythe, Dee
Apiko, Philomena
author_sort Apiko, Philomena
collection Thesis
description Forced sterilisation of HIV positive women has recently been focussed on in Southern Africa where reports of women who had been sterilised in government hospitals without their consent was made public.2 Sterilisation is defined as a surgical procedure whereby a person could be rendered incapable of fertilisation or reproduction3 by blocking of the sex organs.4 Forced sterilisation is sterilisation that occurs without the consent and knowledge of the patient. For the purposes of this paper forced sterilisation will include instances where the HIV-positive woman was sterilised during a caesarean section (c-section) and was not made aware of the procedure. It will also encompass instances where women were coerced against their will by health officials to undergo sterilisation.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/43042
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language English
eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:05.102Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2026
publishDateRange 2026
publishDateSort 2026
publisher Centre for Law and Society
publisherStr Centre for Law and Society
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/43042 Denied motherhood: forced sterilisation of HIV-positive women as a violation of their human rights Apiko, Philomena Smythe, Dee HIV Women motherhood Forced sterilisation of HIV positive women has recently been focussed on in Southern Africa where reports of women who had been sterilised in government hospitals without their consent was made public.2 Sterilisation is defined as a surgical procedure whereby a person could be rendered incapable of fertilisation or reproduction3 by blocking of the sex organs.4 Forced sterilisation is sterilisation that occurs without the consent and knowledge of the patient. For the purposes of this paper forced sterilisation will include instances where the HIV-positive woman was sterilised during a caesarean section (c-section) and was not made aware of the procedure. It will also encompass instances where women were coerced against their will by health officials to undergo sterilisation. 2026-03-25T13:54:18Z 2026-03-25T13:54:18Z 2012 2026-03-24T11:21:27Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters LLM http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43042 en eng application/pdf Centre for Law and Society Faculty of Law University of Cape Town
spellingShingle HIV
Women
motherhood
Apiko, Philomena
Denied motherhood: forced sterilisation of HIV-positive women as a violation of their human rights
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Denied motherhood: forced sterilisation of HIV-positive women as a violation of their human rights
title_full Denied motherhood: forced sterilisation of HIV-positive women as a violation of their human rights
title_fullStr Denied motherhood: forced sterilisation of HIV-positive women as a violation of their human rights
title_full_unstemmed Denied motherhood: forced sterilisation of HIV-positive women as a violation of their human rights
title_short Denied motherhood: forced sterilisation of HIV-positive women as a violation of their human rights
title_sort denied motherhood forced sterilisation of hiv positive women as a violation of their human rights
topic HIV
Women
motherhood
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43042
work_keys_str_mv AT apikophilomena deniedmotherhoodforcedsterilisationofhivpositivewomenasaviolationoftheirhumanrights