HIV/AIDS and the Law Certificate Course Curriculum

Co-ordinator & Lecturer’s Contact Details

HIV/AIDS and the Law is intended to be a practical training course for lawyers, activists and journalists on law in South Africa as it relates to people living with HIV. The course will cover the nature, history and extent of HIV and how to apply legal and policy processes to people living with HIV/AIDS in the areas of Human rights; the Constitution; Employment law; Social assistance and insurance; Access to health care services; Criminal, civil and public impact litigation.

The course is a collaboration between SECTION27, incorporating the AIDS Law Project, and the Mandela Institute at Wits University.

Course Enquiries:
Brian Honermann
E-mail: honermann@section27.org.za
Office: 011 356 4100

Administrative Enquiries:
Magda Janse Van Noordwyk
E-mail: Magda.JanseVanNoordwyk@wits.ac.za
Office: 011 717 8435

Lecture Times: Tuesdays, 17:30 – 19:00

Course content and lecture plan

Please note that the dates of some lectures may be changed to accommodate guest lecturers for the course.

Nathan Geffen, Debunking Delusions, What we know about Aids, pp 12 – 47
HSRC, South African National HIV Prevalence, Incidence, Behaviour and Communication Survey, 2008 pp 63 – 71.

Additional selected materials:
Elizabeth Pisani, “Sex, drugs and HIV – let’s get rational” – TED talk
A Grover, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health

Prescribed Readings:

National Department of Health, HIV & AIDS and STIs Strategic Plan 2007 – 2011 (NSP), Situtational Analysis, pp 21 – 41.
J Saavedra Jonathan Mann Memorial Lecture: Sex Between Men Plenary Presentation, International AIDS Conference (5 August 2008).

Prescribed Readings:

M Gevisser Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred (2007) (pp 727– 765).
M Heywood “Shaping, Making and Breaking the Law in the Campaign for a National HIV/AIDS Treatment Plan” in P Jones & K Stokke Democratising Development (2005) 181-210.
E Cameron “Human Rights, Racism & AIDS: The New Discrimination” (1993) 9 SAJHR 22.

Prescribed Readings:

Irvin & Johnson v Trawler & Line Fishing Union (2003) 24 ILJ 565 (LC)
Joy Mining Machinery v National Union of Metalworkers of SA and Others (2002) 23 ILJ 391 (LC).
C v Minister of Correctional Services 1996 (4) SA 292 (T)

Prescribed Readings:

Department of Labour Code of Good Practice on Key Aspects of HIV/AIDS and Employment
Bootes v Eagle Ink Systems KwaZulu-Natal (2008) 29 ILJ 139 (LC).
IMATU v City of Cape Town (2005) 26 ILJ 1404 (LC).
ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work (2001)

Medical Schemes Act ss 20-21, 29A
General Regulations under the Medical Schemes Act ss 8-13
Circular 37 of 2009: Non-compliance by medical schemes industry in respect of the provision and payment of prescribed minimum benefits (PMBs)
Guardrisk Insurance Company Ltd. v Registrar of Medical Schemes and Another 2008 (4) 620 (SCA).

Health Professions Council of South Africa Guidelines for Good Practice in the Health Care Professions: Ethical Guidelines for Good Practice with regard to HIV (2007)
NM and Others v Smith and Others 2007 (5) SA 250 (CC) (Excerpts from majority judgement, Langa J judgment paras 91–94; O’Regan J judgment)
Tshabalala-Msimang and Another v Makhanya and Others 2008 (6) SA 102 (W)
Jansen van Vuuren v Kruger 1993 (4) SA 842 (AD)

Medicines and Related Substances Act sections 1 (medicine), 13-18.
Treatment Action Campaign v Rath (paras 1–8; 12–29; 83–101; 105).
N Geffen, Debunking Delusions, pp 124-187

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act 32 of 2007
R v Cuerrier [1998] 2 S.C.R. 371
Burris S and Cameron E “The Case against Criminalization of HIV Transmission” Journal of the American Medical Association, 2008; 300(5): 578-581, August 6, 2008
M Kirby “HIV/AIDS Criminalisation – Deserved Retribution or Capricious Sideshow?” (2007) 32(4) Alternative Law Journal 196-197.

Hoffmann v SAA 2001 (1) SA 1 (CC).
A v SAA , Minute of Meeting of Experts

Prescribed Readings:

Minister of Health and Others v Treatment Action Campaign and Others (No 2) 2002 (5) SA 721 (CC).
M Heywood “Preventing Mother to Child Transmission in SA: Background Strategies and Outcomes of the TAC case against the Minister of Health” (2003) 19 SAJHR 278-315.
A Kapczynski & J Berger, “The Story of the TAC Case: the Potential and Limits of Social Justice Litigation in South Africa” in Deena Hurwitz et al (eds.), Hurwitz, Satterthwaite and Ford’s Human Rights Advocacy Stories (West Academic Press, New York: 2008).

Prescribed Readings:

EN and Others v Government of the RSA and Others [2007] 1 All SA 74 (D)
EN and Others v Government of the RSA and Others Case
EN and Others v Government of the RSA and Others Case
A Hassim “‘5-Star’ Hotel? The Right of Access to ARV Treatment for HIV Positive Prisoners in South Africa” (2006) 2 Int. J. of Prisoner Health 157–171
HIV Clinicians Society Guidelines for Prisons

South African Security Forces Union and Others v Surgeon-General and Others – Judgment
South African Security Forces Union and Others v Surgeon-General and Others – Founding Affidavit Excerpts; Affidavit of Sipho Mthethwa; Affidavit of TCM; Affidavit of ZSM; Answering Affidavit Paras 1 – 173; Affidavit of Martin Rupiya with Zim Study, Affidavit of Leslie London Paras 8 – 59, Affidavit of Trefor Jenkins.

Prescribed Readings:

Complaint in re: Hazel Tau and Others v GlaxoSmithKline and Others
Settlement Agreement in re: Hazel Tau and Others v GlaxoSmithKline and Others
GlaxoSmithKline South Africa Ltd. v David Lewis N.O. and Others