THE Canadian HIV-AIDS Legal Network and Human Rights Watch on Friday honoured Namibian lawyer and activist Michaela Clayton as the recipient of the 2009 International Award for Action on HIV-AIDS and Human Rights.
The award, given annually since 2002, recognises outstanding individuals and organisations that protect the rights and dignity of people living with or affected by HIV-AIDS.This year’s award was presented in Toronto at a public reception and the featured speaker was Justice Edwin Cameron, an openly HIV-positive judge of South Africa’s highest court and a leading global advocate for the rights of people living with HIV-AIDS.The organisers said they recognised Clayton’s passionate and unflagging commitment for more than 15 years to protecting the rights of people living with HIV. Among other contributions, she was the founding director of the AIDS Legal Unit at the Legal Assistance Centre in Namibia, the first public interest legal organisation in the country.At the Legal Assistance Centre, Clayton was counsel in successful litigation challenging the Namibian military’s testing and exclusion of HIV-positive recruits, and worked closely with the Namibian Government and public interest groups to develop the Namibian HIV-AIDS Charter of Rights and the country’s National AIDS Policy.In 2002, she co-founded the AIDS and Rights Alliance of Southern Africa (ARASA), a regional network of 35 organisations working in partnership across southern Africa to defend and promote human rights in the response to HIV-AIDS and tuberculosis.’Clayton’s work has changed the public discussion about HIV in the region, continuously challenging stigma and discrimination,’ said Joe Amon, director of the Health and Human Rights Division at Human Rights Watch.’As ARASA’s director, she has worked tirelessly to build grassroots organisations throughout southern Africa, training activists in every country in the region.’Clayton has led ARASA’s advocacy aimed at reversing the trend towards harmful ‘AIDS laws’ in the region, highlighting the dangers of provisions that violate privacy and expand the criminalisation of HIV transmission very broadly.’Clayton’s vision and perseverance have been central to the emergence of a human rights movement related to HIV in southern Africa,’ said Richard Elliott, executive director of the Legal Network.’A devoted human rights activist, she is committed not only to protecting the rights of those who are HIV positive, but to defending the rights of all those who are marginalised or vulnerable.’Clayton said she was honoured to accept the award, because it helped highlight the work of so many advocates supported by ARASA.’To achieve universal access to HIV prevention and treatment, we must emphasise the respect and protection of human rights. There is no other way,’ she said.The Canadian HIV-AIDS Legal Network promotes the human rights of people living with and vulnerable to HIV-AIDS, in Canada and internationally, through research, legal and policy analysis, education, and community mobilisation.The Legal Network is Canada’s leading advocacy organization working on the legal and human rights issues raised by HIV-AIDS.
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