Inter Press Service - June 1, 2004
Diego Cevallos

The legal ruling "is a triumph, but we are not yet confident that it will be fully applied, because in the armed forces there is a lot of discrimination," a relative of the HIV-positive sergeant involved in the case told IPS.

The sergeant filed his lawsuit five years ago, arguing that he was discharged unfairly and was turned away when he sought medical attention for himself, his son and his wife.

The source, who spoke on condition that neither the sergeant nor his family be identified, welcomed the court verdict handed down Monday, saying it put an end to "many sacrifices, and discriminatory treatment."

With respect to cases of soldiers with HIV/AIDS, the armed forces cannot merely apply their own statutes, because the Mexican constitution, six international treaties, and several federal laws prohibit discrimination and the dismissal from their jobs of people living with HIV, said the 'Cuarto Tribunal Colegiado en Materia Administrativa', the court that issued the ruling.

The sentence, which cannot be appealed, states that the National Defence Secretariat's decision to discharge the sergeant on the grounds of supposed disability caused by HIV/AIDS amounted to "discriminatory treatment".

In the past 10 years, more than 270 cases of HIV/AIDS have been detected among members of the armed forces in Mexico, according to official reports. However, lawyers representing AIDS patients say the number is actually much higher.

By late 2003, a total of 71,526 cases of HIV/AIDS had been reported in this country of more than 100 million, and experts say an estimated 150,000 people are now living with HIV, although many are unaware that they are infected.

Monday's ruling opened the door to the possibility of getting the discriminatory law revoked, said lawyer Pedro Morales, who represents 21 HIV-positive members of the military.

Among the possible grounds for discharge, the Social Security Institute Law for Mexico's armed forces, passed by Congress last year, includes testing positive for HIV.

According to the law, HIV causes permanent disability, which provides grounds for discharge. Some of the other causes mentioned are tuberculosis and diabetes.

The passage of the law drew an outcry from AIDS activists.

Rafael Lopez Torres, a legal adviser with the non-governmental Mexican Human Rights Institute, accused the legislators who voted in favour of the law of acting out of "ignorance and complicity."

"I'm sure they didn't even read the text thoroughly," said Torres, who pointed out that with the antiretroviral medicines available today, people can live fully productive lives for more than 20 years after infection with HIV.

Last month, the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, which had voted in favour of the law, presented a proposed amendment that would eliminate HIV infection as grounds for discharge, because infection does not mean a person is unable to work.

"We have all won, with the legal ruling," because it sets a precedent, allowing other members of the military to argue and win their cases, said the relative of the HIV-positive sergeant.

The case wound its way through the courts for five years before Monday's ruling, the only one of its kind involving military personnel.

The sergeant was diagnosed as HIV-positive in May 1999. Three months later, when his wife and son were also found to be infected, he was discharged by the armed forces.

"The family had a lot of problems, and we were always singled out and scorned because of AIDS. The military are very cruel in these cases," said the source.

'AIDS and the Military', a 1998 report by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), says military personnel are two to five times more vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases than the civilian population.

The report states that the higher risk is due to the fact that military personnel are often posted far from home, which tends to lead to high-risk sexual activity.

There are more than 22 million people serving in the armed forces around the world today, mainly men between the ages of 18 and 39, the period when sexual activity is at its height.

The report adds that military personnel who spend long periods of time away from home are "often looking for ways to relieve loneliness, stress and the building up of sexual tension", and visit sex workers in locales where drug and alcohol use is often present, which increases the risk of infection with sexually transmitted diseases.

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+ UNAIDS (http://www.unaids.org)

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