The ability of sex workers to fight against the deadly AIDS epidemic is severely limited by their illegal status in the eye of the law, lamented Malaysian AIDS Foundation chair Marina Mahathir today.

"Sex workers have difficulty in insisting that their clients use condoms because they have no power to make them do so," she said.

"As brothels are illegal, there cannot be a campaign to make all brothels insist that clients use condoms in a way of protecting the sex workers."

However, Marina noted that such campaigns in neighbouring Thailand have brought the level of HIV infection under control.

"Groups such as drug users, sex workers, migrant workers and others that are often marginalised by society can rarely exercise their right to prevention and therefore the fundamental right to health," said Marina in a paper presented at the Human Rights Commission-organised forum on the disadvantaged.

The two-day forum was held in conjunction with the Malaysian Human Rights Day to mark the gazetting of the Human Rights Commission Act on Sept 9, 1999.

According to Marina, who is the daughter of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the number of HIV cases in the country increased from 778 in 1990 to 5,107 in 2000, with the number of deaths rising from 19 to 882.

AIDS - which stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome - is the result of a full blown HIV infection which diminishes the sufferer's immunity system, resulting in a slow and painful death.

It is acquired through various means including sexual intercourse, blood transplant and the sharing of intravenous devices contaminated by the HIV virus.

"Mainstream society is reluctant to spend money on prevention programmes among such marginalised groups while at the same time blaming them for spreading the virus," Marina said.

Muslim women discriminated

Meanwhile, Women's Aid Organisation executive director Ivy Josiah told the 100-odd participants that while recent changes in the Constitution have brought some improvements, there were still many laws that discriminate against women.

She singled out the Islam-based Syariah laws for criticism.

"It is the opinion of women's groups that any discrimination that exists in Syariah has to be amended based on the indisputable belief that Islam upholds the principles of equality and justice for all," Josiah said.

A number of women's groups have argued that the Syariah law discriminates against women, where Muslim men are granted easy divorces but not women.

However, Minister in the Prime Minister's department Dr Rais Yatim had recently gave assurances that problems in the administration of Syariah law would be dealt with soon.

Another speaker, Adrian Lasimbang, lamented the marginalisation of the indigenous people in Malaysia.

"The destruction and loss of land, the forest and the rivers will bring disastrous consequences to the livelihood of these indigenous groups," said Lasimbang who is the secretary of the Indigenous Peoples Network of Malaysia.

The livelihoods of numerous indigenous groups have been pushed to the brink with the advent of modern development projects such as the Sungai Selangor Dam, the Bakun Dam and extensive logging activities in Sarawak.

"In many cases, the indigenous tribes are always at the losing end and have to accept development which is unsuited for them and end up becoming coolies in their own land," Lasimbang said.