An Evening of Solidarity and Inspiration with PIH Canada

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Zackie Achmat

Zackie Achmat is one of the most influential health and human rights activists of our time. Co-founder of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in 1998, Achmat led mass mobilizations that forced the South African government and pharmaceutical companies to make lifesaving antiretroviral therapy affordable and widely available. A landmark Constitutional Court case in 2002, driven by TAC, compelled the government to provide ARVs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV—laying the foundation for what is now one of the world’s largest public treatment programs, serving over five million people. His work has saved millions of lives in South Africa and beyond (McGill SPGH).

Achmat’s activism has always gone beyond HIV. He has co-founded and led movements such as Equal Education, the Social Justice Coalition, Ndifuna Ukwazi, Reclaim the City, and #UniteBehind, each aimed at addressing inequities in housing, education, governance, and health. As an openly gay man, he has also been a pioneering voice for LGBTQ+ rights in South Africa, contributing to constitutional protections that remain a global benchmark for justice and equality (McGill SPGH).

In 2024, McGill University awarded Achmat the inaugural Paul Farmer Award for Global Health Equity, recognizing his extraordinary impact in advancing equity, dignity, and the right to health for marginalized communities. Accepting the award, Achmat credited the “activism of the most vulnerable people in our country and the internationalism of people across all continents” as the true foundation of TAC’s success (McGill SPGH).

Even after decades of advocacy, Achmat continues to take up new battles. In 2025, he emerged from retirement as U.S. funding cuts to HIV programs and South African government inaction threatened to reverse progress. As The New York Times reported, his return highlights “old fears” resurfacing in the fight for access to treatment and the global HIV response (New York Times).

Beyond his public activism, Achmat is also known for his deep intellectual and literary life. In a profile for The Lancet, journalist Sarah Boseley describes his lifelong love of books as central to his worldview—a passion that shaped his early awareness of segregation under apartheid and has remained a constant through personal struggles and health challenges (The Lancet).

Zackie Achmat’s career has bent the arc of history for global health equity. His work embodies the vision of Dr. Paul Farmer: fighting for a preferential option for the poor, resisting the false scarcity of medicines, and galvanizing mass public support toward a more equitable world.