Ending violence against women key to Aids battle

This is according to the just released UNAIDS Aids Epidemic Update 2004 that reports on the latest developments in the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. "We will not be able to stop this epidemic unless we put women at the heart of the response to Aids," UNAids' executive director, Peter Piot, reportedly said at the launch of the report.

The report shows that the total number of people living with HIV globally rose to an estimated 39.4 million in 2004, while the epidemic killed 3.1 million people in the past year. Sub-Saharan Africa is the worst-affected region, with 25.4 million people living with HIV at the end of 2004, compared to 24.4 million in 2002.

The report states that the AIDS epidemic is affecting women and girls in increasing numbers: "Women and girls make up almost 57% of all people infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, where a striking 76% of young people (aged 15-24 years) living with HIV are female."

Released just before International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the start of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence on November 25, the report notes that one of the main causes of this disproportionate impact on women is violence, citing evidence from Rwanda, Tanzania and South Africa to highlight the link.

The Rwanda study quoted showed that HIV-positive women were more likely to have experienced a history of physical and sexual violence at the hands of male partners than were women without HIV. In Tanzania among women younger than 30 years in one Tanzanian city, HIV-positive women were more likely to have experienced physical or sexual violence. Meanwhile, at antenatal clinics in Soweto, South Africa, HIV infection was found to be more common in women who had been physically abused by their partners than in those who were not.

"Violence against women and girls is not a private matter, but a violation of basic human rights with significant economic and social consequences for families, communities and nations," said the report, which called for laws against such violence to be formulated and adopted, and for law enforcement structures to be adapted and officials trained to ensure such laws are implemented.

This backs up previous calls for women's rights to be given more attention in the fight against the epidemic and broader demands for women's rights to be enforced in Africa. For example, The Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa spells out key policies to protect the rights of women, but so far has only been ratified by four African countries, with 15 ratifications needed for it come into force.

The UNAIDS report said that while a recent UNICEF survey found that up to 50% of young women in high-prevalence countries did not know the basic facts about AIDS, the vulnerability of women and girls to HIV infection was not only about ignorance but also stemmed from "their pervasive disempowerment".

"The plight of women and children in the face of AIDS underlines the need for realistic strategies that address the interplay between inequality - particularly gender inequality - and HIV."

Efforts to reverse the AIDS epidemic were unlikely to be successful until prevention efforts took into these inequalities that impacted on behaviour and choices. "If prevention efforts are to succeed in the long-run, they need to address the interplay between gender and socioeconomic inequality and vulnerability to HIV. Prevention activities need to take into account the unequal terms on which most women have to conduct their lives."