Local rights groups in Namibia have uncovered 15 instances of women being sterilized after being diagnosed with HIV, PlusNews reports. Sterilization without informed consent, a severe human rights violation, has been described as “fairly widespread and systemic” in Namibia, and similar examples have been documented in neighboring Zambia and South Africa. Many of the women have declined to go to court because infertility carries a strong stigma in southern Africa.

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