Medical certificate, a prerequisite for a job

Recently, when I started my quest in the world of employment, I came face to face with the conditions for obtaining employment. Among the necessary documents, there is what they call medical certificate (MC). So, as a person who is always inquisitive and sensitive regarding my fundamental human rights, I came to question the essence of a MC (medical certificate). By asking for an MC are they (public and private employers) not violating one of the fundamental human rights? I mean a right to a person’s condition of health and no single person should deny me a service whether I am healthy or unhealthy. Suppose two individuals apply for a job and one is suffering from HIV/Aids while the other is not, who of the two needs the job most and who will be given that job? Every institution, public or private believes that a health person will be more productive than unhealthy employee. Take an example of 1000 people who are unemployed, apply for a medical certificate each paying Frw3000. True, Rwanda Revenue Authority will raise Frw3.000.000 in a blink of an eye. This is good revenue of course but what about the individuals who have been denied the employment due to the fact that they are sick or unhealthy? Article2 of the Constitution stipulates that the government is committed to the fight of all forms of divisionism. However, in asking for an MC there is a healthy and unhealthy employee being defined here, regardless of whether the people who introduced this rationale of MC were partial or impartial, just or unjust? Article 9 further stipulates that, Rwanda reaffirmed its adherence to the principles of human rights, the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights of 1966. I believe that whether an individual is healthy or unhealthy, he has a right to acquire any kind of job irrespective of his/her health condition and this I will categorize it as an economic right to a human being. Article 11 contends that discrimination of whatever kind based on, opinion, economic status, social status, physical or mental disability or any other form of discrimination is prohibited and punishable by law. I am of opinion that a medical certificate as requirement for obtaining employment violates this justified law. Where is the clause that stipulates that persons with the same/different health status are subjected to the same/different treatment when applying for the same job? As a concerned citizen, I kindly request the concerned parties to look into the rationale of a medical certificate as a requirement for job opportunities. Mainly, the national commission for human rights. Allow me to question the objectivity of the MC as requirement for recruitment by private and public organizations. I am convinced that, any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. Any law that separates individuals basing on their personality is morally wrong. Is not a medical certificate a separation between a healthy person and unhealthy person? You might see it as morally right today because you consider yourself healthy but what about tomorrow? I believe that, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. pett_x@yahoo.com

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Medical certificate, a prerequisite for a job