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News/Event Item
Courageous AIDS Activists Share 2003 Jonathan Mann Award
Press Release
Contact: Lynnette Johnson Williams, Press Secretary
202.327.5003 (office) or ljohnsonwilliams@globalhealth.org
16 May 2003
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Two tireless advocates in the fight against HIV/AIDS will share the 2003 Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights. Mr. Abdurrazack "Zackie" Achmat of Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in South Africa and Dr. Frenk Guni, former executive director of the Zimbabwe Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, will receive the prestigious award on May 29 in Washington, D.C.
The Mann Award is bestowed annually in honor of the late Dr. Jonathan Mann to an active practitioner carrying out a commitment to health and human rights, often at great personal danger. The $20,000 award is jointly overseen by three partners: Doctors of the World, the Association Francois-Xavier Bagnoud, and the Global Health Council. This year's award also includes support from John Snow, Inc. and an anonymous donor.
"These outstanding advocates are being honored because they had the courage to demand from their governments a responsible public sector response to the devastating public health threat to southern Africa, the world's most AIDS-devastated region," said Dr. Nils Daulaire, President and CEO of the Global Health Council. "Both are compelling voices for advancing the global response to AIDS treatment as a matter of basic rights."
Daulaire praised the activists as "outstanding advocates" for providing access to antiretroviral treatments, regardless of ability to pay, and for challenging their respective governments to provide care and treatment for people living with HIV and AIDS.
 Dr. Guni has been voluntarily expatriated due to his opposition to Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's policies regarding the politically-driven use of AIDS funds, and Achmat has faced backlash against TAC for his opposition to South African President Thabo Mbeki's unwillingness to allow AIDS treatment to be included in the government's health programs. Both activists are themselves people living with AIDS.
 Through his work with the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Zackie Achmat has worked tirelessly to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS throughout the spectrum of South African society. Achmat has used his own HIV positive condition as a platform upon which to advocate for equity and illustrate that health care is a basic human right. His private insurance would pay for the ARV treatment he needs, but he refuses to take any treatment that is not available to everyone. He is a man willing to die for his convictions that all should have an equal right to care. His unwavering tenacity has kept this issue on the forefront of South Africa's public agenda.
Achmat, who will not be able to travel to Washington for the awards program, was informed of being a co-recipient of this year's award by telephone. "This recognition is for all Africans living with HIV and AIDS," Achmat said. "I plan on donating the award monies directly to TAC's treatment fund."
Dr. Guni founded and became the executive director of the 1.5 million-strong Zimbabwe National Network for People Living with AIDS (ZNNP+) in 1992, helped develop the country's national HIV/AIDS policy, piloted innovative peer education programs throughout the country and lobbied parliament to create the Zimbabwe HIV/AIDS Council Act.
"It is unfortunate that in my part of the world, the people in leadership positions do not really view constructive criticism as a healthy state of affairs," said Dr. Guni. "They look at it as a threat to their political power. It is painful to be persecuted for being an advocate."
Guni underscores that all of his efforts have been intertwined with becoming a tangible and public voice for the countless people living with the disease who could not speak for fear of stigma, or whose cries for help were not being heard. He said, "I'm an advocate for equitable access to healthcare. People have the right to receive competent drugs and treatment when they're available. Many governments say that because treatment isn't affordable, it's not a right."
Dr. Guni, who fled Zimbabwe in November 2001, is currently in the United States where he is receiving medical treatment for lymphoma and HIV. Each previous Jonathan Mann winner has been selected for similar health and human rights efforts under stressful, oppressive and often violent conditions. With the help of the Award, each has had a remarkable impact on the delivery of health care and the protection of human dignity in their respective countries, including Israel and the West Bank, China, Kosovo and Myanmar.
The presentation of the award and its $20,000 prize will be made during the Global Health Council's 30th annual international conference Our Future on Common Ground: Health and the Environment. ABC News anchor Carole Simpson will serve as banquet mistress of ceremonies for the annual awards banquet at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 29, the Omni Shoreham Hotel Regency Ballroom. World health leaders and nearly 2,000 conference participants from more than 60 nations will attend the international global health conference.
Dr. Jonathan Mann (1947-1998) was a voice of conscience and a tireless advocate for people around the world denied the basic human rights of health and dignity. He and his wife Mary Lou Clements-Mann were aboard Swissair Flight 111 when it plunged into the Atlantic on Sept. 2, 1998.
Dr. Mann had been the first director of WHO's Global Programme on AIDS, and had subsequently founded Harvard University's FXB Center for Health and Human Rights. Working with the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, he had ambitious plans to put human rights at the center of global health policy. For additional information on the Jonathan Mann Award, contact: jmannaward@globalhealth.org
An online photograph of Dr. Mann is available at:
http://www.globalhealth.org/awards/mann_info.php3
Past Winners
2002 - Dr. Ruchama Marton and Salah Haj Yehya, two medical workers, one Israeli and one Israeli-Palestinian, who work side-by-side to administer health care and medical treatment in the conflict-ridden West Bank.
2001 - Retired gynecologist Dr. Gao Yaojie of Henan Province, China, who discovered that blood-selling was central to the problem of AIDS affecting people in Henan province.
2000 - Co-winners: Albanaian pediatricians, Dr. Flora Brovina, founder and director of the League of Albanian Women (Pristina, Kosovo) and Dr. Vjosa Dobruna, founder and director of the Center for the Protection of Women and Children (Pristina, Kosovo) for their activities regarding the psychosocial needs of women and children victims of war crimes.
1999 - Cynthia Maung, director of the Mae Tao Clinic (Thailand) for committing her life to healing victims of human rights abuses in her native Burma.
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category: Global Health Council News : Announcements
contributed by Andrea Welch on 20 May 2003
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