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7 April 2006

South Africa's Mbeki told: On HIV, heed your 'Put People First' slogan

Peter Kenny
Geneva (ENI). South African President Thabo Mbeki has been urged by more than two hundred organizations representing civil society and faith based groups to explain why his government has excluded two prominent NGOs from participating at a special meeting of the UN General Assembly on HIV/AIDS.

Namibia's President Hifikepunye Pohamba is also being asked by the same groups to explain why in terms of his country's stated commitment to human rights his administration has barred two Namibian NGO's from taking part at the same meeting.

"Now is not the time for exclusion on the basis of political differences but a time to expand our partnerships across all institutions and individuals tackling the epidemic," stated the civil society and faith groups in letters sent to the South African and Namibian presidents, the Geneva-based Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance said on 7 April.

Neither the United Nations nor the governments involved have publicly explained how or why the NGOs were excluded from attending the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS Review Meeting in New York from 31 May to 2 June.

The advocacy alliance said more than 190 civil society organizations and over 25 faith-based organizations had signed letters to the two presidents demanding an explanation for their actions.

"This letter ... calls on you in your capacity as president of South Africa, to exercise your leadership in favour of partnerships over political difference - and to repeal this objection. Such a step would put even further into practice your government's initiative of 'Batho Pele - Putting People First'," the missive to Mbeki stated.

The two South African NGOs are: the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the AIDS Law Project (ALP). Those based in Namibia are: the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa and the AIDS Law Unit of the Legal Assistance Centre in Windhoek.

They were removed from the list of NGOs approved by the UN General Assembly on 27 March because the two governments reportedly blocked their participation.

The TAC in a letter to the South African Ministry of Health had said, "We are fearful that objecting to the presence of the TAC and ALP is an attempt to silence truthful and widely held opinions about the real character of our country's response to the epidemic."

Mbeki and some of his government ministers have in the past publicly questioned the effectiveness of antiretroviral drugs to tackle HIV.

The TAC campaigns for greater access to HIV treatment for South Africans by raising public awareness about the availability, affordability and use of HIV treatments. The ALP works to promote equal rights and justice for people with HIV. Both South Africa and Namibia have very high incidences of HIV.

© 1994 - 2006 Ecumenical News International.

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