Al Shehab Foundation for Comprehensive Development is glad to announce that through the legal program with support from the International Development Law Organization -IDLO, Al Shehab lawyers were working during the past few months on a case of a person living with HIV who had been terminated from work on the grounds of being HIV positive.
Those efforts have just paid off and an Egyptian court has ruled for the PLHIV, and in the explanation of the ruling it instituted an important legal precedence that we all have been struggling to achieve. Work is a basic human right to all the Egyptian citizens, regardless of their health conditions as long as they can still work. No one can be terminated from work based on their HIV test results. The court has also taken into consideration the medical statements that HIV is not contagious in work environment.
We believe that this ruling is a huge win for all human rights activists in Egypt and is definitely beneficial for defending and protecting basic human rights including right to work for all individuals living with HIV.
The exact ruling and the number of the case is available for those specialized and interested in using it as a legal precedence in their future legal actions in the Egyptian courts.