HIV/AIDS taking catastrophic toll on women and girls
< excerpts >
The global HIV/AIDS pandemic is taking a catastrophic toll on women and girls.
...in sub-Saharan Africa, women and girls constitute nearly 60 percent of those living with HIV. In some countries, the HIV infection rates for girls are many times higher than for boys.
The rising number of HIV infections among women and girls is directly related to violence against women and their unequal legal, economic, and social status.
Abuses of women’s and girls’ human rights impede their access to HIV/AIDS information and services, including testing and treatment.
Misguided HIV/AIDS programs and policies, such as those emphasizing abstinence until marriage, ignore the brutal realities many women and girls face.
By failing to enact and effectively enforce laws on domestic violence, marital rape, women’s equal property rights, and sexual abuse of girls, and by tolerating customs and traditions that subordinate women, governments are enabling HIV/AIDS to continue claiming the lives of women and girls.
< /excerpts >
HRW article: A dose of reality
One might contest that such negligent actions by governments constitute crimes against humanity...but only if one thought that 'women and girls' were human beings, and as such warranted the same human rights as the (oh so priviledged) male of the species...
The global HIV/AIDS pandemic is taking a catastrophic toll on women and girls.
...in sub-Saharan Africa, women and girls constitute nearly 60 percent of those living with HIV. In some countries, the HIV infection rates for girls are many times higher than for boys.
The rising number of HIV infections among women and girls is directly related to violence against women and their unequal legal, economic, and social status.
Abuses of women’s and girls’ human rights impede their access to HIV/AIDS information and services, including testing and treatment.
Misguided HIV/AIDS programs and policies, such as those emphasizing abstinence until marriage, ignore the brutal realities many women and girls face.
By failing to enact and effectively enforce laws on domestic violence, marital rape, women’s equal property rights, and sexual abuse of girls, and by tolerating customs and traditions that subordinate women, governments are enabling HIV/AIDS to continue claiming the lives of women and girls.
< /excerpts >
HRW article: A dose of reality
One might contest that such negligent actions by governments constitute crimes against humanity...but only if one thought that 'women and girls' were human beings, and as such warranted the same human rights as the (oh so priviledged) male of the species...