Human Rights Meeting in Thiruvananthapuram

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum Members,

Public Meeting with Justice Kirby and Justice Edwin Cameron on

7th January, 2002 on " HIV/AIDS and Human Rights "

AIDS is not just another disease but it is an epidemic, which brought with

it or made to surface so many ethical, social, moral, human rights and

economic issues. As the world is shrinking at a fast pace we could not deal

these issues by a piecemeal approach. So networking and interaction at the

International level is the need of the hour. As part of the Lawyers

Collective HIV/AIDS Unit's work in providing free legal aid, advice and

allied services for people affected with HIV/AIDS and conducting an

extensive advocacy programme on HIV/AIDS, Law and Human Rights, two of the

foremost international jurists on HIV/AIDS Law are visiting

Thiruvananthapuram to interact with NGOs, lawyers, healthcare professionals

and students. In collaboration with Department of Futures Studies,

University of Kerala and Foundation for Integrated Research in Mental Health

(FIRM), Thiruvananthapuram, the Unit is organising a Public Meeting on

'HIV/AIDS and Human Rights'. The details of the meeting are:

Date: 7th January 2002

Time: 2pm - 4 pm

Venue: University Senate Chamber,

Thiruvananthapuram

PROGRAMME

2.00 - 2.10 pm Welcome & Introduction - Dr. Jayasree A.K., Chairperson,

Foundation for Integrated Research in Mental Health (FIRM),

Thiruvananthapuram

2.10 - 2.25 pm Introduction to the meeting - Anand Grover, Lawyers

Collective HIV/AIDS Unit

2.25 - 2.55 pm Address by Justice Kirby, High Court of Australia

2.55 - 3.25 pm Address by Justice Edwin Cameron, High Court of South

Africa

3.25 - 3.50 pm Discussion and Q & A with audience

3.50-4.00 pm Closing Remarks & Vote of Thanks - T. S. Arunkumar,

Research Scholar

Department of Futures Studies, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram

As someone concerned with the issue of HIV/AIDS and its grave impact in

India, we take this opportunity to invite you for the meeting and look

forward to your fruitful participation. Please find bio-data of Justice

Kirby and Justice Edwin Cameron on the other side of this

invitation. Kindly confirm your participation by calling Department of

Futures Studies, Tel: 305321, Thrani, Tel: 300334, FIRM, Tel: 470896.

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Honorable Justice Edwin Cameron

Edwin Cameron is a Judge of the High Court, and a Judge of Appeal of the

Labour Courts of South Africa. He is currently an acting Justice in South

Africa's highest Court, the Constitutional Court.

Edwin Cameron was educated at Stellenbosch University and then at Oxford,

where he was a Scholar and obtained two degrees with first class

honours and the Vinerian Scholarship.

Before his appointment as a Judge in 1994, he was a human rights lawyer in

practice at the Johannesburg Bar, and a Professor of Law at the Centre for

Applied Legal Studies, University of Witwatersrand. Apart from initiating

litigation on HIV/AIDS issues, Edwin Cameron helped found the national AIDS

Consortium in 1992, and the AIDS Law Project in 1993, and was a member of

the team that drafted the South African National AIDS Plan in 1993/94. He

co-drafted the Charter of Rights on HIV/AIDS.

Currently he a patron or trustee of a number of AIDS service and community

organisations, and chairs the South Africa Law Commission's Project

Committee on HIV/AIDS. Since 1996 this Committee has produced four reports

recommending law reform measures, including a ban on pre-employment testing

for HIV, which was passed into law in November 1998.

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Honorable Justice Kirby

In February 1996 he was appointed one of the seven Justices of the High

Court of Australia, Australia's Federal Supreme Court. He holds the degrees

BA, LLM, BEc from Sydney University. The degree of LLM was conferred on him

with First Class Honours. In 1997 the National Law School University of

India conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws on him.

He has chaired two committees of the OECD on Privacy and Data Security. He

served as a Member of the Global Commission on AIDS of the WHO. In November

1993, he was appointed the Special Representative of the Secretary General

of the United Nations on Human Rights in Cambodia- a position he held until

April 1996. In March 1994, he was appointed by the Director General of

UNESCO to be a member of the International Jury for the UNESCO prize for the

teaching of human rights.

In 1995 he was appointed to the Ethical, Legal and Social Issues Committee

of the Human Genome Organisation now based in London, monitoring the largest

cooperative scientific project in history. He was also appointed in 1996 to

the International Advisory Group on Advocacy Training of the Inns of Court

School of Law in London and International Council for Conflict Prevention of

International Alert, London. In 1997, he took part in the preparation of a

Judicial Training Manual on Human Rights being prepared by the UN Centre for

Human Rights. In 1995 he was elected the President of International

Commission of Jurists.

In 1991 he was awarded the Australian Human Rights Medal. In 1998 he was

named Laureate of the UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education, award

biennially.