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Amelia Vukeya

ruler
Amelia Vukeya

Class of 2006-07

Bowman Gilfillan

Associate

165 West Street

PO Box 785812, Sandton, 2146

Johannesburg, South Africa

Email: Amelia.Vukeya@gmail.com

 

 

Profile:

Amelia received the first Sir Sydney Kentridge Scholarship at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.  During law school, she participated in the Street Law Democracy for All Program, providing human rights trainings on rape, domestic violence, and other issues for schools and community groups.  Amelia served as a Law Clerk in the Constitutional Court of South Africa for Justice Kate O’Regan, one of the two women on the highest court in the country.  She then completed her Articles of Clerkship with Deneys Reitz Attorneys, a well-established law firm.  She later joined the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law (SAIFAC), and was admitted as Attorney of the High Court of South Africa.  Amelia edited the South African Law Journal and worked on the publication entitled Constitutional Law of South Africa.  She also conducted a foreign-law survey of institutions protecting judicial independence called “The Superior Courts Bill in Comparative Perspective,” which was submitted to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development.  As a church youth coordinator, Amelia organizes discussions on issues such as HIV/AIDS, alcohol and drug abuse, family violence and child abuse. 

During her year at Georgetown, Amelia completed the research paper “Polygyny and HIV/AIDS in South Africa:  The Fatal Clash between Custom and Women’s Human Rights in the Era of HIV/AIDS.” After receiving her L.L.M., she interned with the ABA Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, collaborating with Mike Pates, Director of the AIDS Coordinating Committee. She conducted research on human rights and HIV/AIDS, on issues dealing with IV drug use, access to health care, employment, and criminal law, and the treatment of prisoners with HIV/AIDS. She also drafted and presented a report for the ABA’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco, which was later published.

Amelia sent the LAWA Program this update on her work since returning to South Africa:

I left D.C on the 7th of September 2007 and then started working at the AIDS Law Project [in Johannesburg] on the 17th. I did a lot of interesting work there ranging from access to medicines (HIV treatment) cases, prisons and HIV matters, TB, and customary law work with the women's rights section of the Treatment Action Campaign. In short I did the following:

  • Practiced as an attorney in the area of health law and policy.
  • Conducted public impact litigation for the advancement of rights of people living with HIV (representing the Treatment Action Campaign in competition law litigation on access to cheaper ARV medicines and on the rights of inmates living with HIV).
  • Involved in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the HIV & AIDS and STI National Strategic Plan for South Africa 2007-2011 through the law and human rights sector of the South African National AIDS Council.
  • Edited the AIDS, Rights and Law Manual to be published in 2009 and assisted in the course entitled HIV/AIDS and the Law at the University of Witwatersrand.
  • Involved in drafting of the Department of Correctional Service revised framework for the implementation of comprehensive HIV and AIDS programmes and services for offenders and personnel.
  • Conducted research on TB in South African prisons. 
  • Conducted research leading to a conference presentation on engaging traditional leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The conference was entitled “The Role of Customary Law in the 21st Century:  African Customary Law Revisited” in Gaborone, Botswana from 23 to 24 October 2008, and was organized by Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School, New York City. The article I wrote is going to be published by the Cambridge Press as a contribution to a book.
  • On-going legal support for the Treatment Action Campaign gender-based violence initiative.
  • Participated at the Lawyers Collective Conference on Access to Medicines in Delhi, India in April 2008.
  • Was invited by the American Bar Association to participate at its World Justice Forum conference to establish strategies that can strengthen the rule of law in Austria, Vienna from 2-5 July 2008.
  • Participated in the pre XVII International AIDS Conference meeting for lawyers and human right activists on litigation laws and human rights related to the HIV XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, 1- 8 August 2008.

I left the AIDS Law Project at the end of October 2008 to join a law firm called Bowman Gilfillan Attorneys…  They understand my passion in human rights and support what I do.  Bowman Gilfillan is a board member of ProBono.org, a legal clearing house for law firms.  It has different clinics running the whole week, and one of the clinics is the HIV clinic which I am largely involved in, assisting people in matters ranging from employment discrimination, access to ARV's, referral for counseling etc. I am also assisting lawyers in the firm who are going to the HIV clinic on how to handle clients there. I have only been working here for four months but I am realizing that I can be a good resource on human rights here especially on HIV/AIDS issues. In addition to that, I was appointed secretary of a trust that is aimed at reducing the impact of HIV/AIDS in South Africa through education, treatment, care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS… I think this is a path that will open doors for greater contributions to the field of human rights.