South Africa has taken important steps by putting in place a range of progressive laws that prohibit HIV discrimination. Yet thousands of people living with HIV/AIDS who are discriminated against in the workplace or in their communities, or who cannot access basic social services, are unable to take their matters to court because of either the cost or the unavailability of legal services.

To address this crisis, the AIDS Law Project, the Centre for the Study of AIDS, Street Law and the Wits Acornhoek Advice Centre are hosting a conference on access to legal services. The conference will be held at Wits University, Johannesburg, 17 – 18 February 2006. Over 150 delegates are attending, including many important stakeholders in the field of human rights and access to justice.

For more information on the conference and access to justice issues, please contact Anneke Meerkotter at +27 11 717 8636 or Chloe Hardy at +27 11 717 8628.

Registration is now open for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Annual Meeting - the 2006 HIV/AIDS Implementers' Meeting. The meeting is scheduled for 12 - 15 June 2006 in Durban, South Africa. The focus of this year's meeting is on HIV/AIDS implementers. As such, a significant number of meeting attendees will be from organisations implementing HIV/AIDS programmes and services with funding from sources beyond PEPFAR. These attendees are being selected through an open application process.

This year, abstracts can only be submitted online. The final deadline for abstract submissions is 3 April 2006. Guidelines and eligibility criteria are available on the meeting website: www.blsmeetings.net.