Ipas > Women, girls and HIV/AIDS

Women, girls and HIV/AIDS

March 6, 2001

Statement presented by Ipas to the 45th Commission on the Status of Women:

The worldwide pandemic of HIV/AIDS is recognized as a major threat to every sphere of human society and is a leading obstacle to social development. It is widely recognized that men and women are affected in dramatically different ways by the epidemic because of gender inequality. Although the most widely respected UN documents explicitly state that men and women shall be equal in rights, rarely is that a fact of life in societies where male dominated traditions and roles continue. Commitment, political will and steadfast attention to the role gender inequality and its manifestations in the social, political, economic, cultural and religious spheres play for girls and women is essential to realistically confront this pandemic, and formulate and enact action.

Communities. Laws, policies, and strategies must be developed to ensure girls' and women's human rights are protected and supported by their communities. Treaties such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, provide benchmarks for assessing compliance with these rights. Girls and women must be empowered to resist those practices and pressures that would hamper their efforts to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS. Special attention must be given to the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS, particularly girls and women, both in prevention and care programs to ensure the highest attainable standard of health and quality of life.
Conflict and Extreme Situations. Governments and supra-national bodies must acknowledge and address the gender, race, and ethnically motivated human rights violations that girls and women face, which place them at greater risk for HIV/AIDS transmission, such as rape, forced pregnancy and sexual slavery, including trafficking. Special protection and assistance must be made for refugees and internally/ externally displaced (IDPs/EDPs) girls and women.
Decision-making. Girls and women must be involved in all decision-making related to the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programs on HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). All efforts must be made to help girls and women develop their decision-making and negotiating skills.
Economic Empowerment. Laws, agreements and budgets must be subjected to a gender-based analyses and impact assessment. Governments and financial institutions must enact economic policies and strategies to combat the disproportionate poverty of girls and women.
Education and Information. Girls and women must have access to all relevant information and education about HIV/AIDS through a broad sexual and reproductive health framework. This is due to the fact that the behaviors and situations that place women and girl children at risk for HIV and other STIs transmission also place them at risk for violence, unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions. This education should be coupled with increased access to sexual and reproductive health services that are tailored to male and female adult and adolescents' specific concerns and needs.
Gender Inequality and Discrimination. Girls and women are disproportionately vulnerable on socio-economic and cultural grounds, a fact worsened by multiple indices such as racism, ethnic intolerance, discrimination and unequal access to opportunities. Programs and strategies designed to mainstream a gender perspective must be developed to end the inequality and social subordination of girls and women.
Media Responsibility. Media must be aware of and assume responsibility for their role in perpetuating gender stereotypes, including those arising from racial, ethnic or cultural prejudices and discriminatory beliefs, which contribute to the inequality of girls and women.
Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance. All forms of gender inequality are worsened by intersecting factors such as racism, xenophobia and intolerance. Governments, financial institutions, and communities must be aware of and take responsibility for structures, policies and actions that ensure the maintenance of these forms of discrimination.
Research and Science. Scientific processes, procedures, and allocation of resources must be appropriately subjected to gender analyses. Research must be gender and age disaggregated as it informs national socio-economic and health policies on HIV/AIDS.
Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH). All girls and women of reproductive age must be accorded freedom of choice regarding SRH matters. This includes making contraceptive services available and affordable (including emergency contraception), ensuring that all pregnant women and teens living with HIV/AIDS are enabled to take measures to prevent perinatal HIV transmission, prohibiting coercive measures such as forced sterilization or abortion, and ensuring that they have access to post-abortion care for treatment of incomplete abortions and safe abortion where permitted by law.
Stigma and Myth. Comprehensive measures must be taken to address and eradicate the stigma and mythological assumptions that expose girls and women to high risks of violence, marginalization, abandonment and suffering, as a result of their association with or contraction of HIV/AIDS.
Treatment of HIV/AIDS. Girls and women must have access to affordable and non-discriminatory health services, information and treatment, including anti-retroviral drugs and counseling. Health personnel must be trained in human rights, gender related health issues and harmful practices arising from girls' and women's inequality. Girls and women must be educated about their increased biological vulnerability to STIs and HIV/AIDS.

This statement was prepared in collaboration with the Women, Girls and HIV/AIDs Caucus, and in preparation for the U.N. Special Session on HIV/AIDS to be held June. A report on the Expert Group Meeting on The HIV/AIDS Pandemic and its Gender Implications provides background information.

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258