A blog about the 16th International AIDS Conference, Toronto, Canada, August 13-18, 2006.
The closing day of the AIDS conference, when delegates were celebrating their accomplishments over the past two years and renewing their pledge to bring an end to the HIV pandemic, brought news of the arrest of prominent AIDS activist Zackie Achmat, the founder and chairman of South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign, and 44 fellow protestors for trespassing in a government office.
While occupying the office, Achmat and the others apparently called for homicide charges to be pressed against two cabinet ministers for the death of an HIV+ prisoner in South Africa's Westville correctional center. According to The Associated Press, the prisoner was one of 15 inmates who had recently won a court case against the government forcing it to provide ant-retroviral drugs to the prison population.
Click here for a detailed report in Capetown's Mail & Globe newspaper, and here for a report from The Associated Press.
This story is a timely reminder of the ignorance, stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS, particularly in marginalized populations such as prisoners, injection drug users and sex workers. Calls here this week to make univeral access to health care a fundamental human right now seem all the more pressing.
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