Ensuring that all HIV testing is confidential, conducted with informedconsent, and accompanied by counseling is widely recognized as integral toeffective HIV prevention and treatment strategies. Mandatory HIV testing anddisclosure have been condemned by the Joint United Nations Programme onHIV/AIDS, the World Health Organization, and the UN's Office of the HighCommissioner of Human Rights as violations of the right to privacy andcounterproductive to effective HIV/AIDS control. These organizations have also stated that mandatory testing and compulsorydisclosure can put women at increased risk of abuse and undermine publictrust in the health care system. Research by Human Rights Watch on HIVtesting has documented significant abuses associated with coercive testingprograms. The proposed bill also obligates the Rwandan Government "to suspendfertility for mentally handicapped people. " Systematic, forced sterilizationhas been recognized as a crime against humanity by the Rome Statute of theInternational Criminal Court. In May 2008, Rwanda ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons withDisabilities. The convention upholds the rights of persons with disabilities, including intellectual disabilities, to equal rights. HumanRights Watch said that laws on sterilization, including for persons with disabilities, must respect both a person's right to bodily integrity andinformed consent to medical procedures. Decision making about sterilization must take into account each individual's capacity to give informed consent,and where such capacity is lacking an individualized consideration must be made of the best interests of the person concerned. "While Rwanda has made notable progress in fighting stigma and responding to the AIDS epidemic, and has pledged to advance the rights of persons withdisability, forced sterilization and mandatory HIV testing do not contribute to those goals," Amon said.