United Nations • Facsimile transmission Nations Unies -Telecopie
HEADQUARTERS • SIEGE NEW YORK, NY 10017
DATE: 8 JUH6 2001 TO/A: Mr. Elhadj Sy, Representative UN IADS Liaison Office
FAX: 824-6493 TEL.: 824-6643 DE: Lena Dissij Special AssisN^Wt'to the Deputy Secretary-General United Natiii New York FAX: (212)963-8845 TEL.: (212)963-4930 E-MAIL/MEL: [email protected] PAGES: (INCLUDING THIS PAGE / Y COMPRIS CETTE PAGE) SUBJECT OBJET: Request for meeting with the Deputy Secretary-General by Justice Edwin Cameron URGENT
Please see attached letter from Family Health International, requesting a meeting for Justice Edwin Cameron of South Africa with the Secretary- General.
Since the group has been informed that a meeting with the Secretary- General will not be possible, they have now contacted us and would like to meet with the Deputy Secretary-General on Monday, 11 June.
Ms. Marta Mauras has asked that I urgently ask for your advice regarding this request, since we need to get back to them today.
Thank you. FAMILY HICALTII INTKRNATIONAL
family I (chilli lii-slitiiU- Crty Q The Honorable Kofi Annan Secretary General The United Nations Umted National Plaza New York, New York
Via facsimile (212) 963-3511
5 June 2001
Dear Secretary General Annan:
We arc honored that on 11 June 2001, Justice Kdw in Cameron of South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal will be visitingJNew York, sponsored by Family Health International, to help us mobilize a significantly greater and more comprehensive international response to the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, especially the epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa.
Family Health International has been the leading nongovernmental organization working on HIV/AIDS internationally since 1986. Our current five-year global project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (US AID), entitled the Implementing AIDS Prevention and Care (IMPACT) Project, follows two prior global HIV/AIDS programs funded by USAID: AIDSTECH (1987-1992) and ATDSCAP (1991- 1997). Since 1987, FHI has managed more than 1,300 individual HTV/AIDS prevention and care projects in more than 60 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
The following provides some information on why we are bringing Justice Cameron to the United States to focus on Ihis growing global challenge: (n April 1999, Justice Cameron announced publicly that he is living with HTV. In July 2000, he was the keynote speaker, as well as the first Jonathan Mann Health and Human Rights Memorial Lecturer, and opened the Xfll International Conference on AIDS, held in Durban, South Africa. During his historic speech, Justice Cameron mesmerized an audience of 12,000 and centered the attention of media worldwide on the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic across society, as well as the inequities people living with HIV in non-industrialized countries suffer daily.
As you may know, Justice Cameron is one of the most important thinkers and eloquent speakers in the world today on the reality of living with HIV, especially in a non- industrialized country such as South Africa, and on the myriad issues this pandemic has thrust into greater prominence, Attached is Justice Cameron's short biography to better acquaint you with his stature as one of the leading justices in his country, and as one of the key thinkers and actors on labor law and human rights worldwide, in addition to his personal leadership and courage in speaking publicly on the enormous challenge HFV/AIDS presents globally. Moreover, individuals living with HIV struggle to live their
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Given Justice Cameron's unique role and the formidable challenge of the HIV/AIDS < crisis, we hope that you will be able to fit a meeting of 30 to 60 minutes with Justice Cameron Into your calendar during his short stay in New York on 11 June. We believe that such a "working meeting" between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. or from 2:30 to 3:30 next Monday would be an extremely valuable one for you and others at the United Nations, prior to the Special Session of the General Assembly on HIV/AIDS.
Moreover, in addition to his unique perspective, in-depth understanding of HIV/AIDS issues, and his importance as a national and international figure in newly democratic South Africa, Justice Cameron is a genuine pleasure to meet and is well-versed on a wide variety of issues of interest to the United Nations, especially on human rights.
Mr. Secretary-General, we are grateful for your consideration of this request. likewise, we look forward to hearing from a member of your staff regarding your decision about having a meeting with Justice Cameron, as well as any specific issues that you would like to discuss with him if such a meeting can be arranged for next Monday, 11 June.
Finally, please accept our gratitude for your support at the United Nations and around the world in raising the status of HIV/AIDS as an issue for much greater attention and immediate action on the world's list of global priorities. As you are aware, much more comprehensive efforts and resources and needed urgently to stem HIV transmission as well as care for the millions of people affected by HIV/AJJDS, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Your own support of this issue is of critical importance to the success of our efforts and the efforts of all around the world. And, it is also of valuable moral support to each of us personally.
With many thanks and all best, wishes, 1 am,
Yours sincerely,
)irector, Information Programs //AID/S P/evejrfJon and Care Department EDWIN CAMERON
Edwin Cameron was bom in Pretoria, South Africa, on 15 February 1953 and completed his schooling at Pretoria Boys' High School. The award of the Anglo-American Corporation Open Scholarship enabled him to attend South Africa's Stellenbosch University, where he obtained a B.A. Law degree cum laude and an Honours degree in Latin cum laude. He lectured in Latin and Classical Studies before leaving for Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship in 1976.
At Oxford University, Edwin Cameron obtained a B.A. in Jurisprudence with first class honours and Che Jurisprudence Prize, and the B.C.L. with first class honours and the Vinerian Scholarship. He obtained his L.L.B. from the University of South Africa cum laude and was awarded the Johannes Voet Medallion for the best law graduate.
Edwin Cameron started practicing law at the Johannesburg Bar in 1983. Starting in 1986 he conducted a human rights practice from the University of the Witwatersrand's Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), where in 1989 he was awarded a personal professorship in law. His practice included labour and employment law; defence of African National Congress (ANC) fighters charged with treason; conscientious and religious objection; land tenure and forced removals; and, gay and lesbian equality.
In 1988, Edwin Cameron started advising the National Union of Mineworkers on HIV/AIDS, and he helped draft and negotiate the industry's first AIDS agreement with the Chamber of Mines. While at CALS, he drafted the Charter of Rights on AIDS and HIV, cofounded the AIDS Consortium (a national affiliation of nongovernmental organizations working in HIV/AIDS), which he chaired for its first three years; and, he founded and was the first director of the AIDS Law Project. He also oversaw the gay and lesbian movement's submissions to the Kempton Park negotiating process, in the course of which he delivered his inaugural lecture at the University of the Witwatersrand entitled, "Sexual Orientation and the Constitution: A Test Case for Human Rights."
In October 1994, after taking silk, Edwin Cameron was appointed an Acting Judge of South Africa's High Court and Chair of a Commission to investigate illegal arms transactions, subsequently called the Cameron Commission. He was appointed permanently to the High Court from J January 1995. In 1999-2000, he sewed for a year as an Acting Justice of South Africa's highest court, the Constitutional Court.
Since 1996, Edwin Cameron has chaired the South African Law Commission's Project Committee on HIV/AIDS, which has produced a number of influential reports resulting in major legislative and policy revisions, including a prohibition on pre-employment testing for HIV. In July 2000, he delivered the keynote address at the opening session of the XlJIth International Conference on AIDS in Durban, South Africa.
On 30 October 2000, South African President Thabo Mbeki, on the recommendation of the Judicial Services Commission, appointed Edwin Cameron as a Judge of Appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeal in South Africa. Justice Cameron is the coauthor of The New Labour Law (1987), The New Labour Relations Act (1989), Honored South African Law of Trusts (4 ed 1992), and Defiant Desire-Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa (1994). He has written scholarly articles on the judiciary, labour and employment law, the comparative law of trusts, AIDS and HIV, the constitutional rights of gays and lesbians, and the legal computation of time.
In 1993, Edwin Cameron was ejected to chair the Council of the University of the Witwatersrand. He is Patron of the Guild Cottage Children's Home, the Sparrow's Nest Hospice, and the Community AIDS Response (CARE). He also is chair of the Wits Law School Endowment Appeal Trust.
Edwin Cameron has received a number of distinguished awards. In June 2000, he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies in London. In August 2000, the University of Stellenbosch conferred on him its Alumnus Award for the year 2000. And, on 30 November 2000, in honor of World AIDS Day 2000, he received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights. HIV/AIDS PREVENTION AND CARE DEPARTMENT
FAMILY HEALTH INTERNATIONAL FAX #: (703) 516-9781 2101 WILSON BLVD., SUITE 700 TELEPHONE: (703) 516-9779 )C . /*J If, r A: ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA 22201 USA URL: http;//wwwJEl»rgt^c£ ^"~, ' >
TO: NAME: ' United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan
LOCATION: Office of the Secretary General ~L!itW CC; Gillian Sorensen. Assistant Secretary General for External Relations
FAX fc (212)963.3511
FROM: NAME: Mary O'Gradv. Associate Director, Information Programs
DATE: 5 June 2001 TOTAL # OF PAGES: 5 (Including this page)
SUBJECT: Meeting Request for 11 June with South African Justice Edwin Cameron
Dear Secretary General Annan:
Attached is a letter regarding the visit of Sjmth African Supreme Court of Appeal Justice Edwin Cameron to New York next Monday, 11 June. Justice Cameron is living with HIV, and he opened the world AIDS conference last summer in Durban, South Africa, with a mesmerizing speech. We hope that you will give serious consideration to a short meeting with Justice Cameron next Monday, 11 June (the open times available are in the attached longer letter) at the United Nations. He is an extremely eloquent speaker and a brilliant thinker., as well as being a warm and generous human being. Such a meeting might be very helpful in preparation for the UNGASS on HIV/AIDS.
Please lei me know later this week by Thursday if a meeting is Indeed possible.
We appreciate your kind consideration.
Yours sincerely,