The Centre for Human Rights at the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, invites you to the annual Helen Kanzira Lecture. This public lecture on ‘The Power of Advocacy’ will be presented by Mr Stephen Lewis, who will draw on his extensive international experience to illustrate the power of advocacy in the fight for social justice, reproductive rights, global health and gender equality. He is the co-founder and co-director of AIDS-Free World (www.aidsfreeworld.org), which is an international advocacy organisation that works to promote more urgent and more effective global responses to HIV/AIDS.

Date: Monday 9 December 2013
Time: 18:00 for 18:30
Venue: Musaion, Hatfield Campus, University of Pretoria
RSVP: Kindly confirm your attendance by Monday 2 December 2013 by sending an email to yvonne.oyieke@up.ac.za
Enquiries: Yvonne Oyieke (yvonne.oyieke@up.ac.za)

The late Helen Kanzira was an alumna of the pioneer class of the LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa. She passed away in October 2007 due to complications arising from giving birth to a baby girl.

About Stephen Lewis

Mr Stephen Lewis is the co-founder and co-director of AIDS-Free World (www.aidsfreeworld.org), an international advocacy organization that works to promote more urgent and more effective global responses to HIV/AIDS.

Stephen Lewis’ work with the United Nations spanned more than two decades. He was the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa from June 2001 until the end of 2006. From 1995 to 1999, Mr. Lewis was Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF at the organization’s global headquarters in New York.  From 1984 through 1988, he was Canada's Ambassador to the United Nations.

In addition to his work with AIDS-Free World, Mr. Lewis is aDistinguished Visiting Professor at Ryerson University in Toronto. He recently served as a Commissioner on the Global Commission on HIV and the Law; the Commission’s landmark report was released in July 2012.

Mr Lewis serves as the board chair of the Stephen Lewis Foundation in Canada, and he is a Senior Fellow of the Enough Project. He is an immediate past member of the Board of Directors of the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and Emeritus Board Member of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.

Stephen Lewis is a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest honor for lifetime achievement.  In 2005, Mr. Lewis was named by TIME magazine as one of the ‘One hundred most influential people in the world’ (he was cited in the category which included The Dalai Lama, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, and Nelson Mandela). In 2007, King Letsie III, monarch of the Kingdom of Lesotho (a small mountainous country in Southern Africa) invested Mr. Lewis as Knight Commander of the Most Dignified Order of Moshoeshoe. The order is named for the founder of Lesotho; the knighthood is the country’s highest honor. 

Mr Lewis is the author of the best-selling book, Race Against Time. Heholds 36 honorary degrees from Canadian universities, as well as honorary degrees from Dartmouth College and Johns Hopkins University in the United States.

* Photo of Stephen Lewis by Gordon Griffiths