As a child, you have a right to a healthy life. This is stipulated in paragraph one article 44 of law no. 54/2011 of 14/12/2011 relating to the rights and protection of the child. In this regard, article 44 says, “The Government ensures the availability of preventive and curative care, the effective implementation of national immunization systems for children, to combat malnutrition by all means and takes appropriate measures for controlling the quality of children nutrition and providing clean water to children.” In essence, this means that you have the right to be immunised and to be given proper feeding and clean water. In essence, you have a right to protection from illnesses that can be prevented by taking certain measures. It is important to know that with all these measures, you are still likely to fall sick because the human body is delicate and prone to different infections and diseases. However, it is punishable by law to suffer from a disease that is a result of another person’s actions. For instance, article 159 of the penal code prohibits giving someone a substance that is likely to cause death or seriously endanger that person’s life. For example, it is illegal to share illicit drugs with your peers because illicit drugs have serious negative health effects. According to article 159 of the penal code, the punishment for giving someone a substance that is not good for their health is “a term of imprisonment of six (6) months to one (1) year and a fine of five hundred thousand (500,000) to one million (1,000,000) Rwandan francs or one of these penalties.” Another example of how one might acquire a disease through another person’s actions is through defilement. By definition according to article 190 of the penal code, “Child defilement means any sexual intercourse or any sexual act with a child regardless of the form or means used.” “Regardless of the means” basically means that it doesn’t matter if you have forced the child or lured him/her or if he/she was willing since children cannot legally give consent to sex. Article 193 says that if child defilement or incurable illness, results in death or incurable illness, the offender shall be liable to life imprisonment with special provisions and a fine of five hundred thousand (500,000) to one million (1,000,000) Rwandan francs. Some of the incurable sexually transmitted diseases include HIV/AIDS, Human papillomavirus (HPV) and Herpes. However, a person who seeks help early enough is like to avoid getting the diseases.
