Description
Book SynopsisThe AIDS Law Project (ALP) is a small legal NGO in Johannesburg that, along with its allies in the Treatment Action Campaign, fought for more than a decade for the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS. Today South Africa has laws that protect the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS and the largest treatment program in the world. The ALP’s story is told through their clients and the major legal cases, which form the milestones in this struggle. It is a story about ordinary people who in their own way did some extraordinary things at an exceptionally difficult time. Their clients stood up against prejudice and disinformation because they felt strongly about their rights. For some it was discrimination against themselves; for others it was discrimination against their fellow citizens who were vulnerable because they were living with a disease that had no cure and they were often seriously ill, even dying. People’s rights were being violated, but the law gave them a way to reassert them, generating the first resurgence of civil society in postapartheid South Africa. This book is about the power of people and their courage to speak the truth.
Table of ContentsForeword by Justice Edwin Cameron; Introduction; The first AIDS case: Barry McGeary takes his doctor to court; The fight against discrimination: The origins of the AIDS Law Project (ALP); The applicants who grounded SAA; The campaign for treatment starts; The PMA case: The battle for access to medicines; Save our babies; The powerless and the voiceless: NM, SM and LH vs Charlene Smith, Patricia de Lille and New Africa books; Good doctors, bad doctors; The battle for treatment: Hazel Tau and others take on big pharma for access to medicines; Getting out of jail alive; The last battle ground: The right to serve in the SANDF; Broadening the struggle for social justice: From the ALP to Section27; Chronology of HIV/AIDS with special reference to South Africa; Acronyms and abbreviations; Select bibliography; Postscript by Mark Heywood.
