Ethics, Law and Human Rights Working Group (ELH) of the African AIDS Vaccine Programme (AAVP)
Description of activities
- To assess the existing resources and identify needs in terms of capacity building and research in ethics, law and human rights in African countries.
- To establish a coordinated regional legal, human rights and ethical support framework on HIV vaccines in Africa.
- To facilitate information exchange to ensure the ethical conduct of HIV vaccine trials and to develop capacity in ethics, law and human rights in African countries to ensure the ethical conduct of HIV vaccine trials.
OUTPUTS TO DATE:
Inventory of Research Ethics Committees (RECs) in Africa:
To facilitate networking and consensus-building among major stakeholders, the ELH created and has maintained and updated an inventory of RECs in Africa. This inventory is available at: http://www.saavi.org.za/inventory.htm (last updated January 2007)
Publications
Milford, C, Wassenaar, D & Slack, C. (2006). Resources and needs of research ethics committees in Africa: Preparations for HIV vaccine trials. IRB: Ethics and Human Research, 28, 1-9.
Wassenaar, D., & Barsdorf, N. (2007). The ethical involvement of women in HIV vaccine trials in Africa: Discussion paper developed for the African AIDS Vaccine Program. Women and Health 45(1), 37-50.
Andanda, P. (2007). Human-tissue related inventions: Ownership and intellectual property rights in international collaborative research in developing countries. JME (Provisionally accepted, in revision).
Stobie, M., & Slack, C. Beyond ‘Morally Praiseworthy’: Beneficence and ART Access for HIV Vaccine Trial Participants: Opinion paper developed for the African AIDS Vaccine Programme (In preparation).
Technical reports
Milford, C., Wassenaar, D., Strode, A., Lindegger, G., Slack, C., & Khan, N (2003). Identifying resources and needs of research ethics committees in Africa in preparation for HIV vaccine trials. Pietermaritzburg: Ethics, Law and Human Rights Working Group (ELH), African AIDS Vaccine Programme (AAVP).
Grant, C., Lewis, M., & Strode, A. (2005). The ethical-legal regulation of HIV vaccine research in Africa: A study of the regulation of health research in Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania & Uganda to determine their capacity to protect and promote the rights of persons participating in HIV vaccine research. Pietermaritzburg: Ethics, Law and Human Rights Working Group (ELH), African AIDS Vaccine Programme (AAVP).
Research Ethics Training Workshops Convened:
WHO-UNAIDS Sponsored Training Workshop on "Ethics, Law, Human Rights and HIV Vaccine
Development for African Resource Persons to Build Capacity in Ethical Review." 3 - 5 October 2002, Lagos, Nigeria.
Ethics, Law, Human Rights and HIV Vaccine Development: Capacity Building Workshop for African Resource Persons Involved in Ethical Review. 17 & 18 March 2003, Kampala, Uganda.
Ethics, Law, Human Rights and HIV Vaccine Development: 3rd Capacity
Building Workshop for African Resource Persons (REC/IRB Members) Involved
In Ethical Review. 25 - 27 August 2005, Dakar, Senegal.
ACTIVITIES FOR 2007 & 2008
Focus area 1: To promote networking with African ethics initiatives & AAVP CCs
- 1.1 To research ethics, law and human rights centres in Africa that can be partners for ELH CC activities.
- 1.2 To “pilot” a collaboration with networks, for example the AIDS and Rights Alliance in Southern Africa (ARASA) to give the ELH a strong advocacy arm and to enable ELH to access an existing human rights organization within Southern Africa for implementation of activities, with a view to expanding this model to other African countries.
Focus area 2: To assess the ethical-legal framework in African countries
- 2.1 To complete an ethical-legal audit in 5 more African countries proximal to HVTs.
- 2.2 To develop a “roadmap” and model legal framework for countries describing the steps they ought to undertake to improve legal protections for trial volunteers.
Focus area 3: To coordinate collaborative ethics studies
- 3.1 To conduct a survey of researchers in HIV vaccine/prevention trials to assess their Ethics Law and Human Rights needs and concerns.
- 3.2 To develop a conceptual paper on adolescent issues drafted by partners from ethics centres across Africa, and representatives from each AAVP CC.
Focus area 4: To support the development of effective ethical-legal frameworks
- 4.1 To run a regional workshop on mobilizing advocacy initiatives for law reform towards developing effective ethical-legal frameworks.
Focus area 5: Build capacity of Research Ethics Committees (RECs) and researchers to respond to ethical challenges and to assist with REC networking
- 5.1 To run 1 ethics workshop based on empirically established REC needs (Milford et al., 2005) and the needs of researchers.
- 5.2 To develop four key resource documents for RECs on selected contemporary problems.