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HIV/AIDS,
human rights and the law: Opportunities, challenges and the way
forward for Southern Africa
Edwin
Cameron
Speech given at
the Launch of HIV/AIDS Human Rights Charter
August 04, 2008
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- It is an
honour that you have asked me again to be involved in this launch
of the Zimbabwe HIV and AIDS Human Rights Charter. I thank Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights and the other partner organisations
for inviting me.
- And it is
with the driving spirit behind today-s event, Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights, that I want to start. The fact that an organisation
devoted to human rights and the rule of law has sponsored the
process leading to the Charter says critical things about the
way we have to frame our epic battle with this epidemic -
namely, by emphasising and respecting the rights of all affected
by and at risk from AIDS. I will return in a moment to how important
the 'rights-centred approach- to HIV/AIDS is.
- But first
I want to make a connected point. It is this. While you cannot
ignore rights when you approach health and healthcare and human
well-being, this means equally that cannot ignore elementary principles
of sound government when you speak about any healthcare issue.
- Zimbabwe
is currently cursed with one of the lowest, perhaps the lowest,
life expectancy in the world. According to the World Health Organisation,
a male Zimbabwean can expect to live only to the age of 37. For
women, life expectancy is even lower - only 34.
- These shocking
figures are a direct outcome of the ghastly nightmare of mis-governance
that has afflicted Zimbabwe for the last eight years. They are
a consequence of the misrule, tyranny, brutality and regime-led
thuggery that has led many hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans
to flee their own country - and that has imposed on those
who remain, misery, hunger, beatings, oppression and disease-afflicted
mortality.
- I would
show less than ordinary human decency if I failed to express my
remorse and shame at the part my own country, South Africa, has
played in condoning, colluding with and supporting this state
of affairs.
- To be healthy,
to be well, to be able to face this epidemic with strength and
will, Zimbabweans need good government - wise, democratic,
just, people-led government based on the rule of law.
- The world
waits and watches as Zimbabweans continue the struggle to secure
these fundamental rights in their own country.
- Last year
in September, during the opening of the Commonwealth Law Conference,
the biggest cheer came when the outgoing president paid tribute
to what he called 'the world-s bravest lawyers-
- those who are opposing tyranny in Zimbabwe.
- My point
is that opposition to tyranny is an indispensable part of our
struggle to create a sound and just system of governance that
includes a healthcare-system favouring vigorous engagement with
the AIDS epidemic.
- The mis-governance
in Zimbabwe has exacerbated the crisis of AIDS in many ways: It
has caused the collapse of health structures, it has led to shortages
of anti-retroviral drugs, and it has impeded sound and effective
prevention policies.
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