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RBZ must remove cash withdrawal limits
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
October 31, 2008

The HIV/AIDS, Human Rights and Law Project is gravely concerned with the current cash crisis in Zimbabwe, especially as it related to the issue of access to health and in particular access to treatment for PLHIV in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has more than 321 000 people in need of ART and currently only 100 000 people are able to access ART. The remaining 221000 are forced to either source personal funds to purchase anti retroviral drugs or are condemned to the disastrous option of taking none at all. Yet even those intent on and capable of purchasing medication have been faced with an inordinate challenge of accessing their monies from the bank owing to the cash limits that have been instituted by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. The requirement that people who need to withdraw more of their money than the cash limits thus prescribed should present prescriptions/invoices without any further substantial confidentiality safeguards is mischievous and violation of the right to privacy of PLHIV. We would like to highlight that adherence is a critical aspect of successful ART. Non adherence may result in drug resistant HIV strains emerging among PLHIV.

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR-Article 12) recognizes the right to "the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health" as does Article 28 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 16 of the African Charter on Human and People's Rights. More importantly health facilities, goods and services must be accessible to everyone. In Zimbabwe accessibility also implies that access to cash is (regrettably) an underlying determinant of the right to health, but unfortunately for most Zimbabweans cash is not within safe physical reach. Adequately understood in this context, the limit imposed by the RBZ is a retrogressive measure incompatible with the core obligations under the right to health. We call upon Dr Gono, the Reserve Bank Governor to urgently address this issue with the urgency it deserves and lift the limits imposed on cash withdrawals.

*Inserted by the HIV/AIDS, Human Rights and Law Project, a project of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights

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