For Immediate Release: 23 APRIL 2003
Sharonann Lynch, ACT UP New York, cell: (646) 645-5225

GLOBAL DAY OF PROTEST TO DEMAND SOUTH AFRICA GOVERNMENT PROVIDE AIDS TREATMENT TO MILLIONS FACING PREVENTABLE DEATHS AIDS ACTIVISTS DEMONSTRATE AT SOUTH AFRICAN EMBASSY IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

Simultaneous actions planned in Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia

(Washington, D.C.) Protesters will deliver 600 pairs of shoes, symbolizing the number of preventable deaths each day of HIV-positive South Africans who have no access to AIDS medicines at a 1 PM march and rally Thursday April 24, at the South African Embassy. The march will leave from Massachusetts Ave & California St NW, arriving at 3051 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, D.C. 20008. Protest sponsors include ACT UP New York and Philadelphia, Health GAP, Student Global AIDS Campaign, and African Services Committee.

The Washington, D.C. rally marks a global day of protest called by the largest grassroots AIDS activist group in South Africa, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). The day of protest is part of a broadly supported campaign launched by TAC to force the South African government to support a national HIV/AIDS treatment plan. Simultaneous actions are planned in major cities throughout the world, from Nairobi to Amsterdam (for more details about international actions, contact TAC spokesperson, Vuyani Jacobs: tel: 011 27 73 209 3606, email: vuyani@tac.org.za and go to www.tac.org.za.)

Members of ACT UP, including activists dressed in mourning shrouds, will deliver the 600 empty shoes to South African embassy representatives, while protesters chant, holding banners and playing drums.

"People with AIDS are global citizens-we have an obligation to support South Africans living with HIV and demand that their government begin to treat its 4.6 million HIV positive people," said John Bell of ACT UP Philadelphia. "We look forward to the day when the South African government will commit to treating people with HIV, so all sectors of civil society can be partners with government in immediate implementation of a treatment plan to save lives. Until that time, we must stand with South Africans who are fighting for their lives, and fighting for the life of their great country."

The South African government has refused to endorse a national plan for treatment and care, including access to antiretrovirals, despite widespread national support for treating people living with HIV, and widespread acknowledgement of the massive social, public health, and economic damage to the country as a result of untreated HIV disease.

After four years of pressure on their government, TAC activists launched a non-violent campaign of civil disobedience March 20, 2003 because, "[O]ur consciences no longer can allow us to stand by and let people die needlessly while government procrastinates, delays and impedes the development and implementation of an HIV/AIDS Treatment and Prevention plan. We support our Constitution. In fact our civil disobedience actions draw attention to the fact that the government does not respect the right to life, dignity, equality and health care access of children, men and women who live with HIV/AIDS" (excerpt from TAC's submission to the South African Human Rights Commission, April 1 2003).

The vast majority of people in South Africa have no access to the medicines that have transformed AIDS in wealthy countries into something approaching a chronic, manageable illness. The South African government's own research has confirmed that HIV is the leading cause of death among women between the ages of 15 and 39, of maternal mortality, and is a major factor exacerbating poverty.