Michaela Clayton

Michaela Clayton "is the Director of the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA), a regional partnership of civil society organisations working together to promote a human rights based response to HIV/AIDS and TB in Southern Africa. Ms Clayton is a human rights lawyer who has worked on HIV/AIDS and human rights issues in Namibia, and subsequently regionally and internationally since 1989. She was one of the founding lawyers at the Legal Assistance Centre in Namibia, where she established the AIDS Law Unit to provide a legal service to people living with HIV and AIDS. Whilst at the LAC Ms Clayton assisted in the drafting of the majority of Namibian sectoral HIV policies as well as in the drafting of the Namibian National HIV/AIDS Policy. She was also counsel in successful impact litigation on HIV, including the case brought against the Namibian Defence Force on exclusion of HIV+ recruits from the NDF. In 2002 she initiated the establishment of ARASA as a project of the LAC, which has subsequently grown into an independent NGO with partners in all of the SADC countries.

"Ms Clayton participated in the revision of the International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights (2002) and in the drafting of the ILO Guidelines on Using the ILO Code of Practice and Training Manual for Labour Judges and Magistrates (2005) as well as the UNAIDS, UNHCHCR Handbook on HIV and Human Rights for National Human Rights Institutions (2007). She has been a member of a number of UNAIDS expert consultations on HIV and human rights related issues and has consulted for UNAIDS, UNHCHCR and the ILO.

"Ms Clayton serves on several regional advisory bodies including the SADC Technical Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS.

"Ms Clayton holds a BA LLB (1985) from the University of Cape Town, South Africa." talk