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The Child Law Watch-June 2008
Justice for Children Trust
June 2008

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Confidentiality versus the duty to protect society
Confidentiality is a fundamental principle for all humanitarian workers. Confidentiality is generally defined as the extent to which information gathered from a client for a particular purpose can be disclosed to any other person. This principle is very important and needs to be observed. However there are instances where people debate on the difficulty of upholding this principle, especially where the good of the society is at stake.

In one of the areas that we work in, a young primary school girl was raped by an adult who lives in the same neighbourhood and in the process she was infected with the deadly HIV virus but she is not aware of her status. JCT was consulted for the purpose of legal representation. However, her mother and the school head both know about the situation as the results were revealed to them by the local doctor. The dilemma that the mother and school Head are now facing is on how to disclose the results to the minor in a way that will not violate her rights as well as ensuring that she will be able to live with the reality. Of particular concern now is the fact that she has already started dating and this calls for the need to protect the young boys from being infected with the deadly HIV virus.

The question that our programme officers kept asking themselves is "what is the best way of upholding the principle of confidentiality and protection of the girl, while at the same time ensuring that the young boys are also protected from the virus?". The complexity is presented by the fact that the young girl is not aware that she is HIV positive and at her age she is about to explore several things including sex.

The organisation felt that the situation cannot just be left as it is and there is need for action to be taken right away.

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