FOUND 627
This report provides an assessment of the role of gender based violence in HIV transmission and the current prevalence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa. It explains how the use of PEP can help prevent HIV infection and describes the policy the government has adopted to provide access to PEP and ARVs for all survivors of sexual violence. However, the government has not been fully implemented these initiatives, and this report provides…
This fact sheet addresses how HIV/AIDS have significantly increased the care burden for many women. Poverty and poor public services have also combined with AIDS to turn the care burden for women into a crisis with far-reaching social, health and economic consequences. The term 'care economy' is sometimes used to describe the many tasks carried out mostly by women and girls at home such as cooking, cleaning, fetching water and many other…
Gender-based violence can result in many negative consequences for women's health and well-being as it has become a public health and human rights problem throughout the world. It can also affect their children and undermine the economic well-being of the societies. Gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS are also inextricably linked. The experience of violence affects the risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) directly when it…
In April 1994, Rwanda suffered one hundred days of violence, targeted at the Tutsi and moderate Hutu population. Ten years later, the consequences of the violence have not been dealt with adequately, neither by the international community nor by the Rwandan government. Survivors of violence still cry out for medical care; survivors and families of victims clamour for justice that is slow in coming. Women continue to die from diseases related to…
Behavioral, physiological and socio-cultural factors make young people more vulnerable than adults to HIV infection. This report provides a regional overview of adolescents' knowledge of HIV/AIDS and behaviors in Sub-Saharan Africa that put them at risk for or protect them from infection. It also examines the social and economic context of adolescents' lives. All of these factors are fundamental to understanding the progression of the epidemic…
ICW believes that when HIV positive people are involved at all levels of decision-making of an organization; it is better able to respond to the concerns of people living with HIV/AIDS. Moreover, exposure to women, men and children living with HIV has a profound impact on attitudes to people living with HIV as well as knowledge of safer sex. To promote our rights and to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic effectively, HIV positive women need to be…
The Dominican Republic is in the middle of a growing HIV/AIDS epidemic, which is spreading faster among women than men. In this context, many women face human rights violations on at least two major fronts: in the workplace and when they use government prenatal or other health care services. Women are at increased risk of HIV infection and there is increased incidence of HIV-related human rights violations in the workplace and the health care…
As the AIDS epidemic continues to ravage communities across the developing world, households affected by HIV/AIDS face difficult choices as their limited resources are increasingly diverted to the costs of care and treatment. This paper seeks to examine the link between HIV/AIDS and women's property rights - if women's lack of rights increases household poverty and women's own vulnerability to infection, and if securing these rights can mitigate…
This fact sheet addresses how women need methods to protect themselves from HIV that they can control. One of the most promising prevention options on the horizon is microbicides. Women would be able to control the use of protection for themselves and their partners from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Of the estimated 42 million people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) at the end of 2002, 19.2 million-or about 45 percent-were women (UNAIDS and World Health Organization [WHO], 2002). In many countries around the world, the majority of new infections are occurring in women, particularly adolescents and young adults. Developing appropriate responses to the gender issues that continue to make both women and men vulnerable to HIV is critical to all…
Every year, HIV/AIDS causes the death of an increasing number of women. In 2002 over one million women around the world died of AIDS. Access to antiretroviral treatment (ART) could reduce this figure drastically. ART has turned HIV into a much more manageable chronic condition which may no longer be a death sentence. However, ICW is keen to point out that treatment is not just about providing ART; care, support and other medications are also…
This report focuses on the plight of the women in Rwanda, Burundi, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo who have contracted HIV/AIDS as a result of rape during conflict in those countries. It argues that under international human rights and humanitarian law, these women have the right to reparations for their suffering, including guaranteed access to antiretroviral drugs to fight HIV / AIDS. The first part of the report…
Unpaid care work is a major contributing factor to gender inequality and women's poverty. The amount and intensity of unpaid care work in Southern Africa has been exacerbated by the HIV and AIDS pandemic. Mainland Southern Africa is said to be the most affected region in the world. Southern Africa has less than 5% of the world's population and yet has the highest rates of HIV and AIDS infection. The worst affected countries include…
This is a brief based on a background paper prepared for the WHO/UNFPA/Population Council Technical Consultation on Married Adolescents held in Geneva, Switzerland, 9-12 December 2003. Over the next decade in developing countries, more than 100 million girls under the age of 18, "children" as defined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, will be married. In countries with HIV epidemics, these girls, most of whom live in Africa and Asia,…
This Report was commissioned by the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan. Under the leadership of Ms Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF, the Task Force on Women and Girls in Southern Africa comprises twenty seven members from Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The members represent a broad spectrum of stakeholders including government, NGOs and people living with HIV and AIDS.…
Presented at the 2004 African Regional Conference, this paper is on FAO’s reponse to the changing context of agricultural development as it is being shaped by the epidemic. The paper is presented in three parts: the first provides an update on the state of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the region; the second provides an overview of the breadth and depth of FAO’s responses to date; and the third concludes by identifying areas which require further…
On April 2, 2003, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) hosted a meeting in Washington, DC to consider gender issues regarding the disclosure of HIV serostatus in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 90 technical personnel who work on HIV/AIDS, gender, and reproductive health issues participated in the meeting. The objective of the meeting was to explore the relationships between perceived outcomes and actual outcomes for women who…
This article reviews the status of women with HIV in India. It discusses the low awareness of HIV/AIDS among women, how the burdens of blame and care fall on women, dealing with stigma in health care settings, and how health officials, individuals, and groups are breaking down barriers to prevention and care.
This report examines the diverse forms of discrimination at work that have been identified and formally condemned nationally and internationally. It gives an update of the various policy and practical responses, with the aim of mobilizing greater support for the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. Particular focus is paid to racism, gender inequalities, and discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS.
This publication is divided into three sections. Section one provides a synthesis of the reviewed literature on prevention of mother to- child transmission of HIV, voluntary counseling and testing, and other issues that impact on the care, psychosocial support and counseling needs of HIV-infected women and their families in the perinatal period. Section two provides examples from around the world of projects that focus on the care and…