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    April 24, 2003

    HGAP Memorandum to South Africa Embassy Official

    The memorandum below will be presented to embassy officials in Washington DC during the demonstration sponsored by ACT UP New York, ACT UP Philadelphia, Africa Action, African Services Committee, Health GAP, and Student Global AIDS Campaign.

    After the demonstration we will meet with Deputy Chief of Mission Thandabantu Nhlapo.

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    Memorandum from Health GAP (Global Access Project)
    To Deputy Chief of Mission Professor Thandabantu Nhlapo
    Embassy of South Africa to the United States
    Washington, DC
    April 24, 2003

    Today, we stand in solidarity with the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), to honor the lives of the 600 South Africans with HIV/AIDS who die needlessly each day without access to life-saving treatment, and to support TAC's demand that the government immediately make a commitment to a comprehensive National HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment Plan. South Africa's Freedom Day is in a few days' time. We implore the South African government to use this day as an opportunity to uphold the Cabinet's promise of April 17, 2002 to rollout a national antiretroviral treatment program - to act now to save the lives of millions of South Africans living with HIV/AIDS.

    South Africa has been a beacon of hope to the world, as your nation triumphed over apartheid, established a new democracy, adopted the world's premiere human rights Constitution, and undertook a healing process of truth and reconciliation. But the South African government's negligence in the face of the AIDS epidemic has been staggering. South Africa is at the very epicenter of the global AIDS pandemic, with the largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS and one of the fastest growing infection rates. It has the capacity not only to respond this national crisis by providing universal access to antiretroviral therapy in the public sector, but also to provide a model for the entire continent. And yet it has refused to adopt a sound policy on AIDS treatment.

    Two years ago, we were at this same space-the South African embassy in Washington, D.C.-protesting alongside the South African government and embassy officials the drug company lawsuit against your Medicines and Related Substances Control Act. Before that we together opposed Vice President Gore and other U.S. officials in their effort to impose trade sanctions on the South African government. And so it is with deep sadness that we return to the embassy today to protest the government's intransigence. We regret that the government has not responded to the innumerable attempts of TAC and its allies to join with the government to develop and implement a National HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment Plan, and that TAC has thus been forced to launch a non-violent civil disobedience campaign. We will continue to stand in solidarity with the thousands of people who are fighting for their right to healthcare and treatment-for their very lives.

    We recognize the challenges inherent in developing a program for universal access to anti-retroviral treatment for all South Africans living with HIV/AIDS. We therefore urge South Africa to make use of every available policy tool to ensure affordable and sustainable supplies of generic anti-retroviral medicines, including issuing compulsory licenses on patented AIDS drugs and beginning local production of anti-retrovirals. As U.S.-based activists, we will continue to demand that our own government stops reneging on the commitment it made to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in November 2001 when it, along with all the other WTO Member States, adopted the WTO Ministerial Declaration on the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and Public Health. We will also continue to demand that the United States contribute its fair share of the funds needed to combat the global AIDS pandemic effectively.

    But today, we stand before you with a simple message: act now to put an end to the needless suffering and death.

    The South African government can halt the needless deaths, return to negotiations at NEDLAC, and commit to signing a Framework Agreement on a National HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment Plan, thus demonstrating to the world South Africa's leadership in confronting this epidemic. Again, we urge the South African government in the strongest possible terms to act now to save the lives of millions of people with HIV/AIDS.


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