Monday 10 February

Draft Medicines and Related Substances Amendment Bill

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the AIDS Law Project (ALP) recognise the need for, and strongly support, legislative reform to ensure that the Medicines Control Council (MCC) is able effectively and efficiently to regulate medicines and other health products. This, we are told, is the ostensible purpose of the draft Medicines and Related Substances Amendment Bill, 2008 (“the draft Bill”).

Medicines and Related Substances Amendment Bill, 2008

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the AIDS Law Project (ALP) recognise the need for, and strongly support, legislative reform to ensure that the Medicines Control Council (MCC) is able effectively and efficiently to regulate medicines and other health products. This, we are told, is the ostensible purpose of the draft Medicines and Related Substances Amendment Bill, 2008 (“the draft Bill”)1.

National Health Amendment Bill, 2008

The National Health Amendment Bill (the Bill) was simultaneously published with the Medicines Amendment Bill on 18 April 2008. Both Bills are some of the most important pieces of health legislation to be proposed in recent years. The Medicines Amendment Bill is the subject of a separate submission that accompanies this one.

South African Security Forces Union and Others v Surgeon General and Others

On 15 and 16 May 2008, a ground breaking case on the constitutionality of HIV testing policies that are used to exclude ALL people with HIV from recruitment to, promotion or foreign deployment in the SA National Defence Force was heard in the Pretoria High Court.

The court was asked to declare the blanket exclusion unconstitutional, order the appointment or promotion of individual’s adversely affected by the policy and to order the SANDF to devise a new policy within six months.

Panel for the Independent Assessment of Parliament, 2007

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the AIDS Law Project (ALP) welcome this opportunity to make a submission to the Panel for the Independent Assessment of Parliament. The TAC and ALP are civil society organizations dedicated to upholding the rights of people to have access to health care services, to ensuring that the state discharges its positive constitutional obligations in respect of that right, and to ensuring a comprehensive response to HIV/AIDS both domestically and internationally.

Regulations Relating to the Labelling and Advertising of Foodstuffs, 2007

The AIDS Law Project (ALP) and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) focus much of their work on ensuring that full and meaningful effect is given to the Bill of Rights recognition that “[e]veryone has the right to have access to … health care services” and that the “state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realization” of this right.

Nursing Council Regulations, 2007

In recognising the important role entrusted to the Nursing Council (“the Council”) by the Nursing Act, 33 of 2005 (“the Act”), this submission is primarily concerned with ensuring that the process in terms of which members of the Council are appointed instills public confidence in that body.

State institutions supporting constitutional democracy, 2007

As a section 21 not-for-profit company and a registered law clinic, the AIDS Law Project (ALP) seeks to develop, implement and use laws and policies to protect and advance the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS. In so doing, it aims to ensure arights-based response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic that it believes is best suited to reducing new HIV infections and minimising the negative social impact of AIDS. Part of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg from 1993 until 2006, the ALP – as an independent organisation – is now formerly associated with the Wits School of Law.

Strategic framework for the Human Resources for Health Plan, 2005

The AIDS Law Project (“the ALP”) and the Treatment Action Campaign (“the TAC”) welcome the release of the Strategic Framework for the Human Resources for Health Plan (“the Strategic Framework”) for public comment and discussion. We further welcome the express acknowledgement therein by the Department of Health (“the DoH”e need for appropriate human resources for health (HRH) planning and recognise the substantial work that has gone into the development of the Strategic Framework.

EN and Others v Government of the Republic of South Africa and Others (Westville)

Since October 2005 the TAC and the AIDS Law Project (ALP) have assisted HIV positive inmates at Westville Prison in acquiring ARVs that have routinely been refused to them by prison authorities. Situated in Kwazulu Natal, one of the provinces most severely affected by HIV/AIDS, Westville had steadfastly prevented TAC or other NGOs from conducting treatment workshops, treatment literacy programs, or any form of HIV awareness training.

WDA