Suchergebnisse

In this article in the symposium on 25 Years at the Margins: The Global Politics of HIV/AIDS, the social movement mobilization around AIDS is investigated in the case of South African AIDS rights activism & the Treatment Action Campaign(TAC) to ask whether democratic states can use a rights discourse to challenge global injustices. A discussion of the collection action frames & framing process of social movement theory compares the strongly neoliberal western human rights master frame against the notion of rights adopted by the AIDS movement linking of ideology behind the AIDS movement to the anti-apartheid struggle. A discussion of the legacy of unequal & racially divided health care system that was inherited by the new government in 1998, & the progressive bill of rights, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturer's Association (PMA) claims of member's rights contextualize the development of local activist targeting of pharmaceutical companies, & TAC's mobilization of a broad international alliance using a human rights framework. The continuation of the TAC human rights framework after PMA dropped their case developed into a public & media debate over mother to child transmission program (MTCTP), & is related to the state's policy focus on unequal domestic & international power relationships. The impact of rights discourse on shaping a vibrant AIDS activist movement in South Africa is concluded to include a serious consideration of socioeconomic rights in the context of human rights that the AIDS crisis has precipitated. References. J. Harwell

The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in South Africa has drawn particular attention in recent years, not only because of the country's high rates of infection but also because of the highly contentious debates between the state, AIDS NGOs, & scientists over AIDS policy. The national AIDS lobby in South Africa, including groups such as the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), has been forcefully articulating a rights-based discourse as a strategy to realize particular normative claims on the state. I examine these recent public debates & challenges to the human rights based response to AIDS that has gained consensus internationally among AIDS NGOs, governments, doctors & medical researchers. I explore the limitations of framing political demands in terms of the constitution & within a rights-based discourse in the present era of globalization & neo-liberalism, where the state's capacity to respond to the social welfare demands of its citizens has declined, & where the protection of universal human rights requires that powerful transnational actors, in addition to the state, be held democratically accountable. References. Adapted from the source document.