The global AIDS epidemic is one of the greatest threats to security and development in the world. Millions of people in developing countries are dying of AIDS, TB and malaria – while the first world sits idly by. High prices of medicines, protected from competition by patent law, make it impossible for poor people to protect themselves against illness and death.
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SECTION27 is a public interest law centre that uses and develops the law to advance human rights.
 Health and Hope in Our Hands: Addressing HIV and AIDS in the aftermath of rape and woman abuse. This manual offers hands-on advice for service providers, health providers, traditional healers, counsellors and activists on how to deal with rape and sexual assault, as well as to provide a comprehensive package of care to rape survivors. It focuses on post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, and living with HIV/AIDS amongst other topics. This submission comments on the Draft Regulations Relating to Foodstuffs for Infants and Young Children (“the Regulations”) published in terms of the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act 54 of 1972. The ALP and TAC strongly endorse the principles underpinning the key findings and proposals made in the Report. In particular,we support the Report’s promotion of the concept of Comprehensive Social Protection (CSP) which seeks to provide the basic means for all people living in the country to effectively participate and advance in social and economic life, and in turn to contribute to social and economic development, recognising that high levels of unemployment, extreme poverty and inequality are significant barriers to sustainable growth.  The first edition of HIV/AIDS and the Law: A Resource Manual was published in May 1997. Six years later, stigma, unfair discrimination and human rights violations against people living with HIV or AIDS remain common in our society. This is an attack on the rights of thousands of people to dignity and equality, and also a serious obstacle to effective HIV prevention, treatment and care. The arguments and recommendations in this submission are based on a number of human rights and public health considerations. In particular we have focused on the following four areas: the rights of the survivor of sexual assault; the rights of the accused; theimpact of the draft bill on public health measures to limit spread of HIV; and the impact of the bill on state services for survivors of sexual assault. These are not isolated concerns, being interrelated and having an impact on each other. On 19 April 2001, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association of South Africa (PMA) and numerous multinationalbrand-name pharmaceutical companies abandoned their legal challenge to the Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Act, 90 of 1997 (the Medicines AmendmentAct). In this submission, we provide support for the majority of the Commission’s recommendations and make suggestions to strengthen certain areas. We have also indicated where we recommend that further research and discussions be conducted to find appropriate solutions. |
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Legal advice
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Health and HIV