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Stop court procedures against women and poor people with AIDS.
Access to essential drugs and health services are a human right!
Protect the right to life before profits! 

Millions of poor people in Africa are suffering from poverty and bad health. According to UN/Aids, up to 35 % are infected with HIV/AIDS in some countries. In total approximately 24.2 million adults are infected. Around 60 % of them are women and girls. Already 12,1 million children have been orphaned and more will come.

The picture is clear: HIV/AIDS is a serious development and security threat in many African countries. For women and girls HIV/AIDS is a serious threat to their personal health and life, as they often lack autonomy and power over their bodies and sexual lives. Economic insecurity and dependence reduce women’s ability to negotiate safe sex. Young girls are specifically in danger as they become an attractive and risk free target for older men’s sexuality and beliefs that sex with young women have curative effects. Violence against women and armed conflict contributes to women’s vulnerability to HIV and their ability to cope with the infection.

Furthermore, women incur unbearable social responsibilities of having to care and provide for sick members of families and the community, a burden which  increased by poor public health systems that are unable to offer basic services Only between 2 and 6 USD is being spent per person in public health systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. African governments could certainly do better, for example by giving explicit priority to HIV/AIDS prevention in national health policies and programmes and by cutting military expenses. However, they are in no condition to afford and provide sufficient HIV/AIDS treatment that needs to be extended to large infected populations without international assistance.

In addition, they are in no way able to afford necessary drugs for HIV/AIDS treatment at the present price levels, which are entirely controlled by huge multinational pharmaceutical corporations. According to Søren Brix Christensen, "Doctors without Frontiers, DK", essential HIV/AIDS drugs could easily be sold at price levels at only 10 - 20 % of present prices and still with a profit!

Hence it is appalling that 39 huge pharmaceutical corporations including the Danish Novo Nordic and Lundbeck are taking the South African government to court this week on March 5 for wanting to enact legislation that will make it possible to obtain the cheapest possible medicine from local suppliers and abroad. They challenge the S.A. medicine act 15 ( c ) which empower the S.A. Health Minister to override the pharmaceutical patents when public health is at stake. They claim that this violates the companies’ intellectual property rights that are protected by the WTO TRIPS agreement and signed by the S.A. and other governments. Furthermore, they object to unfair discrimination against their products, referring to the stipulation within the S.A. Medicine Act that require pharmacists to dispense cheaper generic medicines, when possible.

K.U.L.U.-Women and Development, Denmark, fully supports the international “Cut the Cost campaign” and demands that:

• the worlds drug giants take no further part in the court case against the S.A. government
  and that the Danish companies NOVO Nordic and Lundbeck immediately withdraw from the case!
• the Danish Government, the EU and the UN recognize the right of LDC countries to produce or buy cheap copies of patented HIV/AIDS drugs,
• the UN take steps to build a database which compares drug prices worldwide - and thereby enables national health care systems and pharmacists to buy at cheapest price level.
• provisions in the TRIPS agreement to safeguard public health through compulsory licensing and parallel importing should be strengthened, and the scope for legal challenges by patent holders limited.
• the forthcoming review of the TRIPS agreement should include a comprehensive gender-sensitive impact assessment of its effects on the affordability and availability of medicines in developing countries.
• the North-South affordability gap be addressed through a new global contract with the pharmaceutical industry
• the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa and other developing regions be taken seriously and
• financial resources be provided through ODA and debt cancellation to rebuild and strengthen the general public health services and programmes that can eliminate HIV/AIDS and other serious health threats to poor populations in the global South
• priority should be given to explore and address the human rights and gender dimensions of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in order to ensure mainstreaming as a crosscutting concern in health policies and programmes

Being young between life and HIV. About young people in Uganda” is the title of a new development education package that K.U.L.U.-Women and Development is presently launching in Denmark, targeting a Danish audience of secondary school youngsters. The aim of the education package is to inspire to reflection on topics such as sexuality, health, human rights, gender and development - by meeting young people where they are in their dreams, thoughts and experiences about boy and girl friends, sexuality, family, school and education, HIV/AIDS, sex education, sugar daddies and much more. The education package contains interviews with and short stories about young peoples lives, dreams and thoughts in Uganda, combined with factual information. An English language thematic newspaper from the Ugandan NGO “Straight Talk” is focusing on “Sugar Daddies and Mummies”.  – For more information contact K.U.L.U.-Women and Development, e-mail: kulu@kulu.dk 

About K.U.L.U.-Women and Development
K.U.L.U.-Women and Development (KULU) is a Danish non-partisan umbrella NGDO for 27 women organisations and groups, two local umbrella organisations, incl. an individual membership base. KULU works with development education, lobby and advocacy in order to highlight gender and development issues and influence Danish and EU development aid policies in a gender sensitive direction. KULU gives priority to networking and link up with like-minded networks and organisations in the South and North. Presently KULU is strengthening its focus and programme on “Gender, Trade, Globalisation and Development” and is paying special attention to follow the processes towards the High Level Event on Financing for Development and the WTO MC4.
For more information: K.U.L.U.-Women and Development, Borgergade 14 2.th, 1300 Copenhagen K, Denmark. Tel: 00 45 – 3315 7870. E-mail: kulu@kulu.dk  Website: www.kulu.dk

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