Established in 2002, the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) is a regional partnership of non-governmental organisations working together to promote a human rights approach to HIV/AIDS and TB in Southern Africa through capacity building and advocacy. It is constituted in the form of a trust and all partner organisations are members of the trust. Three steering committees, comprising trust members, act as advisory boards for the three ARASA programme areas: training and awareness raising, advocacy and lobbying and regional treatment literacy and advocacy.

Current partners are:

• AIDS and Human Rights Research Unit, University of Pretoria
• AIDS Law Project, South Africa
• AIDS Law Unit of the Legal Assistance Centre, Namibia
• AIDS Legal Network, South Africa
• African AIDS Vaccine Programme's (AAVP) Co-ordinating and Resource Facility on Ethics, Law and Human Rights (ELH)
• Associacao Muhler, Lei e Desenvovimento (MULEIDE), Mozambique
• Associacao de Reintegracao dos Jovens, Criancas na Vida Social (SCARJOV), Angola
• Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA), Botswana
• Children Education Society(CHESO)
• Coalition of Women Living with HIV and AIDS in Malawi
• Community Health Media Trust, South Africa
• Lawyers for Human Rights, Zimbabwe
• Lesotho Network of PLWA (LENEPWA), Lesotho
• Lironga Eparu, National Association of PLWA, Namibia
• Mozambican Treatment Access Movement (MATRAM), Mozambique
• National Women's Lobby and Rights Group, Malawi
• Protection Enfants SIDA, DRC
• PILS, Mauritius
• Research on Equity and Community Health (REACH) Trust, Malawi
• Southern African HIV and AIDS Dissemination Service (SAfAIDS), Zimbabwe
• Southern African Human Rights NGO Network (SAHRiNGON) Tanzania
• TALC, Zambia
• Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), South Africa
• Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) Swaziland
• Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) Zimbabwe
• Zambia AIDS Law Research and Advocacy Network (ZARAN), Zambia

ARASA focuses its activities in three interlinking programme areas:

ARASA seeks to achieve its primary objective through:

1. Advocacy and lobbying;
2. Training and capacity building; and
3. Capacity building for access to treatment and prevention.

Central to all of the programme areas is the recognition that some 25 years into the epidemic the protection of human rights remains critical to a successful response to HIV and AIDS. HIV-related stigma and discrimination remain major obstacles to meeting the target of universal access to HIV prevention, care and treatment. It is internationally recognised that protection of human rights, both of those vulnerable to HIV infection and those already infected, is not only a right, but also produces positive public health results against HIV. The denial of human rights such as the rights to non-discrimination and gender equality, information, education, health, privacy and social assistance increases both vulnerability to infection as well as the impact of the epidemic. Particular attention must be given to protecting the rights of vulnerable groups such as women, young people and children as well as the rights of marginalised groups such as men having sex with men (MSM), intravenous drug users (IDU's), commercial sex workers, prisoners and others who engage in activities deemed to be immoral or illegal if they are to avoid infection and withstand the impact of HIV.

ARASA's central operational strategy through all three of these programme areas is thus to utilise the ARASA partnership to build and strengthen the capacity of civil society, with a particular focus on PLWA organisations, to effectively advocate for a human rights approach to HIV/AIDS and TB in southern Africa.

ARASA's work is generously supported by the following funders:

• Ford Foundation
• HIVOS
• Irish Aid
• Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa
• Public Welfare Foundation
• SIDA
• Tides Foundation

A Southern Africa in which human rights are at the centre of all responses to HIV/AIDS and TB and in which the rights of PLWA are respected and protected and socio-economic rights, the denial of which fuels the epidemic, are respected, protected and fulfilled.

To promote a human rights approach to HIV/AIDS and TB in Southern Africa through capacity building and advocacy.

ARASA has adopted the following values as being central to the way in which it works and in its relationships with partners, donors and stakeholders:

• Transparency, honesty, integrity and accountability in governance, financial procedures and decision making
• Meaningful involvement of PLWA
• Equality and non-discrimination
• Limitations of human rights only in accordance with the provisions of international human rights law1
• Tolerance
• Inclusion and participation
• Respect
• Excellence in service delivery