Hong Kong Police Denied HIV-Positive Detainees Access to Medications, Report Says

Police in Hong Kong have committed human rights violations, including denying HIV-positive detainees access to drugs, according to a report released on Monday to the U.N. from the Hong Kong People's Alliance on WTO and the Asian Human Rights Commission, the South China Morning Post reports. Released on the same day that the U.N. Human Rights Committee is scheduled to address Hong Kong's 2005 human rights record, the report says that police prohibited three HIV-positive Thai protestors who attended last year's World Trade Organization conference in Hong Kong from accessing their medications. Alliance Coordinator Mabel Au Mei-po said she visited Bangkok this year to meet with one of the detained Thai protestors, who said that Hong Kong police did not allow him to take his medication in his cell. He added that police later sent him to a hospital where he met with a doctor who told him he "did not know anything about HIV/AIDS," Mei-po said. The Thai protestor also said that Hong Kong police did not return his medications until he was released, Mei-po added. According to Elizabeth Tang Yin-ngor, chair of the alliance, medical experts should be available in cells to monitor the medical status of detainees. A police spokesperson said that the force does not know of any complaints from HIV-positive people regarding access to drugs, adding that police were conducting a review of the situation (South China Morning Post, 3/20).

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