These were the words of Justice Edwin Cameron of the Constitutional Court, South Africa as he delivered the Jonathan Mann Lecture on protecting human rights and reducing stigma. This was at the Tuesday plenary session at the 21st International AIDS conference, taking place in Durban, South Africa.
Justice Edwin emphasized on the role of human rights and the need to fight stigma and discrimination as an important element of taming the HIV epidemic. He also noted, as he had done in Mexico eight years ago that laws that criminalize deliberate transmission of HIV were a distraction to the fight against HIV. He condemned the recent Canadian supreme court decision and the provision of Section 79 of the Zimbabwe Penal Code, which is slightly similar to Section 26 of Kenya’s Sexual Offences Act 2006.
At the end of his presentation Justice Cameron called on activists to join him on stage not only in solidarity but to also interact with the other speakers and chairs of the session. Two amazing Kenyan ladies Dr. Elizabeth Bukusi of KEMRI and Ms. Maureen Murenga of International Community of Women Living with HIV Global were part of the panel and spoke about the implication of gender on the HIV response. The session was chaired by Graca Machel and Princess Mabel of Orange Nassau.
The full remarks by Justice Cameron are available here.
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