Activist groups all over the world are planning demonstrations today in support of South African peoples’ demands for antiretroviral treatment, led by the Treatment Action Campaign.
In London a major demonstration at the South African embassy is planned between 10am and 5pm, with similar events planned in the Netherlands, Japan, Washington DC and Los Angeles. In London those who have died for want of antiretroviral therapy will be symbolised by the laying of empty shoes outside the embassy. Six hundred red tulips in the Netherlands and 600 paper cranes in Japan will symbolise the 600 AIDS deaths each day in South Africa.
In South Africa demonstrations including civil disobedience have been going on for weeks. The National Association of People with AIDS launched a programme of demonstrations last week called `Black Easter` that included a sit-down protest outside the offices of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association in Johannesburg. Fifty-three people were arrested.
Meanwhile, as part of its `Dying for treatment` campaign, the
Treatment Action Campaign targeted South Africa’s Human Rights Commission earlier this month with an occupation and its demand for a national treatment plan. The Human Rights Commission is responsible for monitoring government progress adherence to the country’s Bill of Rights, which includes the statement that all citizens are entitled to access to health care. On April 22 the Commission responded with a report, under preparation for two years, which backed universal access to antiretroviral therapy and said that the South African government must now move immediately to implement a Constitutional Court ruling requiring antiretroviral therapy to be provided to mothers with HIV and their babies.