[Ip-health] Human Rights Watch letter to Mbeki

[Mike Palmedo]

Text of letter (appears below)
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/11/mbekiltr1120.htm

Press release
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/11/Mbeki1121.htm

Reuters story
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011121/hl/south_africa_aids_1.html

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South Africa: Stop Court Fight on AIDS Drugs 
 
21 November 2001 
President Thabo M. Mbeki
Union Buildings - West Wing
Private Bag X1000
Pretoria
Republic of South Africa 


Dear President Mbeki: 

We write to ask for your leadership in the struggle against a grave
threat to the human rights of all South Africans, that of the HIV/AIDS
epidemic.


The level of mortality among young and productive adults in Africa and
in countries around the world that are affected by HIV/AIDS is
unprecedented in history. It is, by any reckoning, a humanitarian crisis
demanding urgent action and strong political leadership. The deprivation
of life caused by HIV/AIDS, including eighteen million deaths in
sub-Saharan Africa, is not equally or randomly distributed in the world.
HIV/AIDS can be managed medically and can be prevented through well
supported government action even where widespread poverty exists, as the
governments of Brazil and Uganda, for example, have so well
demonstrated. 
Across the world, persons infected and affected by HIV/AIDS have lost
their basic rights and freedoms in addition to their right to life.
Persons living with HIV/AIDS who have been courageous enough to speak
out about their disease have been subjected to violence, abuse,
stigmatization, marginalization and discrimination in employment and
access to services. HIV-positive persons in your country have suffered
all of these human rights violations. 

The constitution of South Africa is a model statement of commitment to
human rights for all of Africa and the world. Your own commitment to
these ideals has been demonstrated in many other fields. But that
commitment is belied by a policy of denial and neglect of the profound
crisis of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. 

The position of the government of the Republic of South Africa has gone
beyond the inaction that has unfortunately characterized government
response to HIV/AIDS in so many countries. Much more deadly is your
government's active undermining of a rational and effective response to
the crisis through systematic denial of extremely well demonstrated
science on the causation of the epidemic and refusal to take advantage
of any opportunities to make HIV/AIDS treatment available to your
population. While widespread poverty in South Africa is undoubtedly a
significant factor in worsening the effects of HIV transmission, this
does not mean that countering the epidemic must rely on what can only be
long term efforts to improve the standard of living of the poor.
Treatment programs for HIV/AIDS themselves can help to reduce poverty,
by enabling the poor to continue working and thus maintain an income. 

In April this year, South Africa won a potentially significant victory
for health and human rights, when the predatory lawsuit of thirty-nine
pharmaceutical companies against your government was dropped. A golden
opportunity was created to mount a large-scale publicly funded program
of treatment for HIV/AIDS and the opportunistic infections associated
with it. It is a source of great discouragement to everyone interested
in protecting the rights of persons affected by HIV/AIDS to see that,
nevertheless, non-governmental organizations have had to force the South
African state into court to try to win access to basic programs of
prevention and treatment. The continued refusal of your government to
pursue such a program - even to support the provision of the low-cost
treatment for prevention of mother-to-child transmission - along with
public statements that sow confusion about the scientific basis for
HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs, are acts of injustice
against your people. 

When governments do little or nothing to facilitate prevention and
treatment of HIV/AIDS, when treatment is feasible, they are themselves
guilty of the arbitrary deprivation of life that is prohibited by
article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
and by chapter 2 of the constitution of the Republic of South Africa. In
South Africa, moreover, the focus on treatment alone caused by the
government's refusal to accept the use of antiretroviral drugs has
diverted attention from the equally important task of taking steps to
end the violence, abuse, and discrimination suffered by those infected
or at high risk of infection with HIV/AIDS. 

We urge you urgently to take the following measures: 


End the mother-to-child-transmission court case against the government
by committing to programs to prevent vertical transmission of HIV in all
government health facilities that offer antenatal care. 

Authorize the appropriate actors in your government to work with the
medical and public health communities and non-governmental organizations
to use the considerable infrastructure of your government's health
system to bring treatment, including antiretroviral drugs where
necessary, to the millions of persons infected by HIV/AIDS. 

Increase the government's allocation of funds to combat HIV/AIDS to a
sum commensurate with the scale of the problem, rather than the less
than one percent of the national and provincial budgets currently
devoted to the crisis, and encourage support from international donors
for programs to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic. 

Support the efforts of individuals and organizations in the scientific,
medical and public health sectors and in non-governmental organizations
who are working to mount an effective evidence-based response to
HIV/AIDS in South Africa. 
Your leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS, as in other aspects of
the struggle for freedom and human rights in South Africa and in Africa
as a whole, is essential to prevent an even greater catastrophe for
South Africa resulting from this disease. 

Sincerely, 


/s/
Peter Takirambudde
Executive Director
Africa Division
    /s/
Joanne Csete
Director, HIV/AIDS and
Human Rights Program