CIVIL+Society+Coalition+documents+for+HIV+Congress+Oct+27

COSATU Media Release, Monday, October 23, 2006
=CIVIL SOCIETY COALITION RELEASES DISCUSSION PAPERS FOR HIV/AIDS CONGRESS=

The Civil Society Coalition on HIV/AIDS, between the South African Council of Churches (SACC), Congress of South African Unions (COSATU), SA Non-Governmental Coalition (SANGOCO) and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) today have released discussion documents for the Civil Society Congress taking place on 27-28 October 2006 at the Randburg Inn, Johannesburg.

These papers address topics to be discussed at the congress. They also provide a critical assessment of the national response to HIV/AIDS on issues such as ARV treatment, HIV prevention, care and support, SANAC, Prisoner’s rights, Children’s rights, and violence against women.

The Coalition will forward the proposals in these papers to the Deputy President and Minister of Health after they have been debated at the Congress.

We are also pleased to confirm that Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, will address the congress delegation on the government’s national response to HIV/AIDS pandemic and SANAC’s developments and plans on Friday 27 October at 11.30am.

The objective of the congress is to reach consensus on targets and programmes for HIV prevention, treatment, care and support as well as on the restructuring of the National AIDS Council (SANAC). All this takes place at a time when government is reviewing the National AIDS strategy.

The coalition theme is “Building solidarity, an Action Plan to Save Lives”.

The coalition is ready to partner with government and mobilize civil society, but we demand an end to ambiguity in the commitments made by government with regard to scaling up the services needed to save people’s lives.

The papers will be available on each of the coalition’s websites. Media are invited to apply for accreditation to Ms. Rukia Cornelius at **rukia@tac.org.za**.

For more information on the conference, please visit


 * [|www.cosatu.org.za]**
 * [|www.sacc.org.za]**
 * [|www.sangoco.co.za]**
 * [|www.tac.org.za]**
 * [|www.aidsconsortium.org.za]**

CONTACT PERSONS: Rev. Teboho Klass, SACC 082 412 2960 Jacqueline Mpolokeng, COSATU, 082 452 0840 SIPHO MTHATHI, TAC, 084 300 7007 HASSEN Lorgat, SANGOCO, 082 411 2946 Denise Hunt, sangoco, 082 523 4701

Issued by: Patrick cRAVEN sPOKESPERSON Cosatu tEL: 011 339 4911 fAX: 011 239 5080 cELL: 082 821 7456

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