As women around the world celebrate the international 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, the Women Won’t Wait. End HIV and Violence Against Women. Now (WWW) Campaign has expressed concern at the alarming trend of governments criminalizing HIV exposure and transmission worldwide. More than 58 countries worldwide have laws that criminalize HIV transmission and/or exposure or use existing laws to prosecute HIV positive people for supposed transmission of the virus, with another 33 countries considering similar legislation.

Nearly 15 years since apartheid ended, millions of black South Africans still live in self-built shacks – without sanitation, adequate water supplies, or electricity.

But A Place in the City will overturn all your assumptions about ‘slums’ and the people who live in them.

In this film, shot in the vast shack settlements in and around Durban, members of , the grassroots shackdwellers’ movement, lay out their case – against forcible eviction; for decent services – with passion, eloquence, and sweet reason. The film captures the horrible conditions in which shackdwellers live – but it also captures Abahlali’s bravery and resilience, in a political climate where grassroots campaigners like them are more likely to be met with rubber bullets than with offers to talk.

‘For the first time now’, says S’bu Zikode, Abahlali’s elected leader, ‘poor people have started to speak for themselves. Now, that challenges those who are paid to think for us – who are paid to speak for us.’

At the heart of Abahlali’s struggle is the struggle for meaningful citizenship rights for South Africa’s poor majority. ‘Or does freedom in South Africa,’ asks Abahlali volunteer organiser Louisa Motha, ‘only belong to the rich?’
Made with assistance from Fahamu – Networks for Social Justice through a grant from TrustAfrica.

Edited at VET, Hoxton Square, London
Editor: Duncan Harris
Filmed, produced and directed by Jenny Morgan
© Grey Street Films 2008

Available on DVD: Fahamu ISBN: 978-1-906387-41-9 A place in the city. Profits go to Abahlali and towards production of multiple language versions.

The Master's programme in International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford is a part-time degree offered over two academic years. Admissions for the 2009-10 Master's programme are now open. It involves two periods of distance learning via the internet as well as two summer sessions held at New College, Oxford. The degree programme is designed in particular for lawyers and other human rights professionals who wish to pursue advanced studies in international human rights law but may need to do so alongside their work or family responsibilities.