Speaking truth to power
Subtitle: the story of the AIDS Law Project
By: Didi Moyle
Publisher: Jacana Media
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Auckland Park, South Africa
Language: eng
Number of pages: 498
ISBN-13: 9781928232087; 9781928232094; 9781928232100; 9781928232117
Subjects: AIDS activists; Law and legislation; AIDS (Disease)
Description: "Speaking truth to power is about the resurgence of activism in post-apartheid South Africa. A small NGO in Johannesburg, the AIDS Law Project (ALP), along with its allies in the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), used legal strategies and collective action for more than a decade to fight for the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS. Today South Africa has the laws that protect the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS and the largest treatment programme in the world. This would not have happened without dedicated activism and a commitment to social justice. Speaking truth to power tells how people used our Constitution and the law in this struggle. The leadership of the ALP was clear as to how they wanted their history to be told. They saw the ALP story as the story of their clients and their cases, which form the milestones in this struggle. So this is a story about ordinary people who in their own way did some extraordinary things at an exceptionally difficult time. They stood up against prejudice and disinformation because they felt strongly about their rights. For some it was discrimination against themselves; for others is 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. To add insult to injury, the country's president and, for some time, the government denied the scale of the epidemic. People's rights were being violated, but the law gave them a way to reassert them, generating the first resurgence of civil society in post-apartheid South Africa. This book is about the power of people and their courage to speak the truth."--Back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: The first AIDS case: Barry McGeary takes his doctor to court; title: The fight against discrimination: the origins of the AIDS Law Project (ALP); title: The applicants who grounded SAA; title: The campaign for treatment starts; title: The PMA case : the battle for access to medicines; title: Save our babies; title: The powerless and the voiceless: NM, SM and LH v Charlene Smith, Patricia de Lille and New Africa Books; title: Good doctors, bad doctors; title: The battle for treatment: Hazel Tau and others take on big pharma for access to medicines; title: Getting out of jail alive; title: The last battle ground: the right to serve in the SANDF; title: Broadening the struggle for social justice: from the ALP to SECTION27.