International
Women's Day 2004 -- which is Monday, March 8 -- focuses on "women and
girls and HIV/AIDS" and serves as a day "both to celebrate women and to
raise awareness about their situation," according to UNAIDS
Deputy Executive Director Kathleen Cravero, Xinhuanet/China
View reports. Cravero said that women and girls are the "weakest
link" in the global fight against HIV/AIDS because of their "less-advantaged
economic and cultural position in the society," according to Xinhuanet/China
View. Currently, there are 20 million women living with HIV/AIDS worldwide;
58% of the people living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa are women,
and 30% of the HIV-positive individuals in the Mekong region of Asia are
women. Cravero said that there is a "paradox of low risk but high vulnerability,
which means, for most women, they don't engage in risky behaviors, they're
married and have one partner, but their partner might have" other partners.
She added that the "lack of attention to women's rights is fueling the
HIV epidemic" worldwide (Xinhuanet/China View, 3/8). Cravero on
Monday addressed the Mekong Leaders' Consultative Meeting on Women and
AIDS, the first initiative of the newly formed Mekong Coalition on Women
and AIDS, a "regional offshoot" of the Global
Coalition of Women and AIDS, which was launched in London on Feb. 2,
according to a UNAIDS release
(UNAIDS release [1], 3/8).
U.N. Event
To mark the day, the U.N.
Division for the Advancement of Women and the U.N.
Department of Economic and Social Affairs Office
of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, in
collaboration with the Inter-Agency
Network on Women and Gender Equality, are hosting an event at U.N.
headquarters in New York City. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is scheduled
to discuss the global situation of women and HIV/AIDS; World
Health Organization Director-General Jong-Wook Lee plans to discuss
improving access to antiretroviral treatment; Queen Noor of Jordan is scheduled
to speak about the impact of HIV/AIDS on women in the Middle East; International
Organization for Migration Deputy Director-General Ndioro Ndiaye is
scheduled to talk about how migration and trafficking affect the spread
of HIV/AIDS; UNAIDS' Noerine Kaleeba is scheduled to discuss the importance
of community support for people living with HIV/AIDS; and EngenderHealth
South Africa Program Manager Dean Peacock is scheduled to focus on the
role of men and boys in preventing violence against women and the spread
of HIV. A live webcast of the event will be available online at un.org/events/women/iwd/2004/
(International Women's Day Web
site, 3/8).
'Positive, Concrete Change'
Annan said that "society pays many times
over the deadly price of the impact on women of AIDS." He added, "Poor
women are becoming even less economically secure as a result of AIDS, often
deprived of rights to housing, property or inheritance or even adequate
health services. In rural areas, AIDS has caused the collapse of coping
systems that for centuries have helped women to feed their families during
times of drought and famine -- leading in turn to family break-ups, migration
and yet greater risk of HIV infection." Annan concluded that "[w]hat is
needed is positive, concrete change that will give more power and confidence
to women and girls, and transform relations between women and men at all
levels of society" (Secretary General's message,
3/8). Noeleen Heyzer, executive director of the UNIFEM,
the United Nations Development Fund for Women, said that although women
10 years ago "were at the periphery of the epidemic, ... [t]oday they are
its epicenter." She added that the impact of the epidemic is "particularly
alarming" for young women between the ages of 15 and 24, who are twice
as likely to be HIV-positive than their male counterparts. Heyzer said,
"The social impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls is greater -- they are
the ones who assume the burden of care when family members are affected
by the disease, putting severe constraints on their access to education,
employment, food cultivation and often treatment" (UNIFEM release,
3/4). UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said, "Women are disproportionately
vulnerable to HIV," adding, "Only too often, women -- and particularly
young girls -- are unable to protect themselves from unsafe sex because
they don't have the information or confidence to do so."
Movie Premiere
The World
Young Women's Christian Association and UNAIDS in Geneva to mark International
Women's Day on Monday premiered a 52-minute film, titled "Women Are," which
features women describing the "hardships they face in the light of the
growing AIDS threat," according to a UNAIDS release. The movie, which was
produced by Mondofragilis
for the World YWCA and UNAIDS, was filmed during December 2003 and January
2004 (UNAIDS release [2], 3/8). The film features Dr. Musimbi Kanyoro,
general secretary of the World YWCA, Cravero and actress Emma Thompson,
a member of the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS (Mondofragilis Web
site, 3/8). Kanyoro said, "The call to empower women is not new, but
AIDS makes it more urgent. The film premiered today brings to life not
only the deeply rooted injustices and discrimination faced by women, but
provides hope for the millions of women out there who feel disempowered
and vulnerable. It is a wake-up call for women to take action to stem the
tide of AIDS" (UNAIDS release [2], 3/8).
Opinion Piece
International Women's Day is a "time
to highlight the situation in which women live, and the AIDS crisis demands
innovative efforts to change them for the better," Cravero and Janet Fleischman,
chair of the gender committee of the Center
for Strategic and International Studies' HIV/AIDS
Task Force, write in a Boston
Globe opinion piece. Cravero and Fleischman say that although the
Bush administration's five-year, $15 million global AIDS initiative "recognizes
the urgent situation of women and girls, ... much more is needed to translate
this into action on the ground." The United States will have to "support
proactive strategies to make women and girls a focal point for prevention
and treatment," according to Cravero and Fleischman, who add, "That women's
subordinate status fuels the epidemic in acutely affected countries is
increasingly accepted: the challenge now is to initiate innovative strategies
that couple this knowledge with available resources as part of a comprehensive
response." Cravero and Fleischman call for "logical programming decisions,"
including:
-
Designing treatment programs that take
into consideration the obstacles faced by women and girls;
-
Training health care workers, law enforcement
and judicial personnel to recognize "the signs of gender-based violence;"
-
Creating environments in which women
can "safely seek information, testing and treatment;"
-
Making condoms "accessible, affordable
and acceptable;"
-
Expanding prevention programs beyond
the "ABC" approach of abstinence, be faithful, use condoms;
-
Supporting legislative and judicial
reform to repeal laws that violate women's rights;
-
Creating "gender advisory groups" in
the target countries; and
-
Increasing support for nongovernmental
organizations that "work to reduce women and girls' vulnerability to HIV/AIDS
and expand community mobilization."
Cravero and Fleischman conclude,
"This is a critical moment for the United States and its international
partners to develop proactive strategies that enable women and girls to
have meaningful access to HIV prevention and treatment," adding, "The point
is to give them what they need to save themselves: resources, education,
jobs, access to HIV treatment, legal support and real options to live safely
and productively" (Cravero/Fleischman,
Boston Globe, 3/8).
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