Description
Speaking truth to power is about the resurgence of activism in post-apartheid South Africa. A small legal NGO in Johannesburg, the AIDS Law Project (ALP), along with its allies in the Treatment Action Campaign, fought for more than a decade for the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS. Today South Africa has the laws that protect the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS and the largest treatment programme in the world. This would not have happened without dedicated activism and a commitment to social justice. Speaking truth to power tells how people used our constitution and the law in this struggle. The leadership of the ALP was clear as to how they wanted their history to be told. They saw the ALP story as the story of their clients and their cases, which form the milestones in this struggle. So this is a story about ordinary people who in their own way did some extraordinary things at an exceptionally difficult time. They stood up against prejudice and disinformation because they felt strongly about their rights. For some it was discrimination against themselves; for others it was discrimination against their fellow citizens who were vulnerable because they were living with a disease that had no cure and they were often seriously ill, even dying. To add insult to injury the country's president and, for some time, the government denied the scale of the epidemic. People's rights were being violated, but the law gave them a way to reassert them, generating the first resurgence of civil society in post-apartheid South Africa. This book is about the power of people and their courage to speak the truth.
