Blackwell Reference Online

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Organized by HIV-positive South African activist Zachie Achmont in 1998, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) helped the international move ment for access to medication and therapy for people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa and around the world. Building on the lessons of the US activist group AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), TAC took the stigma of HIV/AIDS head on, shifting debate about the disease from deviance to one of human rights and access to treatment. In public demonstrations in the early 2000s, both HIV-positive and HIV-negative members of the organization wore t-shirts with the words “HIV POSITIVE” to increase visibility for people with HIV/AIDS and reduce social isolation among those with the disease in South Africa. Anti-apartheid icon and international human rights hero Nelson Mandela , leader of the South African anti-apartheid movement and former president, wore an “HIV POSITIVE” t-shirt as a symbol of the need to expand public access to HIV treatment. Mandela's advocacy for the group also helped solidify the links between the anti-apartheid struggle and the campaign for treatment access as human rights movements. Since access to treatment for people with HIV/AIDS was only narrowly available to South Africans, Achmont drew international headlines for refusing the medication until available to everyone. In doing so, Achmont put his own health at risk ... log in or subscribe to read full text