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World Aids Day Forum Focuses On Women’s Rights

2 December 2004

The forum was held at Marlborough House, Londonm UK on 1 December 2004.

"In addition to gender, education or health, HIV is a human rights issue. Inadequate protection of women's human rights or their inability to control situations in which they can be placed at risk multiplies their vulnerability to the disease," said Nancy Spence, director of the Commonwealth Secretariat's Social Transformation Programmes Division (STPD).

"The challenges in addressing such human rights are enormous but the consequences of not addressing them are even more disastrous."

Speaking at the World AIDS Day Forum organised by STPD at Marlborough House, London, UK, on 1 December 2004, Ms Spence also stated: "We can't really face the HIV/AIDS pandemic unless we look very closely at empowerment issues. Empowering women and girls to say 'no' to risky sex will act as a natural vaccine against the pandemic." She stressed this was one factor among many.

Dr Gareth Tudor-Williams, Senior Lecturer in Paediatric Infectious Diseases, Imperial College, University of London, spoke on 'Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission: What about the Mother?' He noted that early efforts to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV concentrated on understanding how the virus passed from mother to infant.

He stressed: "For too long, however, the mother was viewed as a vehicle by which to administer interventions that protected her baby. The needs of the mother and the vulnerability of an uninfected baby whose mother has been allowed to die were slow to be acknowledged.

"Mothers have got to receive effective treatment themselves, rather than being used simply as a tool to prevent mother-to-child transmission."

Dr Alice Welbourn, Chair, Board of Trustees of the International Community of Women living with HIV/AIDS, spoke about the 'ABC message' -- Abstain, Be Faithful, and use Condoms. She said most HIV positive women have learned the hard way that the ABC message is far too simplistic as an effective prevention response to the HIV pandemic.

"For instance, abstinence-only programmes for young people have been shown by Christian Aid and others not to work; being faithful is no good if your husband is having unprotected sex with others and you want children; and condom use is extremely difficult to negotiate for both men and for women."

Tania Boler, Education and HIV Adviser, Action Aid, noted that education empowers girls and young women. "This is key to its efficacy against HIV, a disease which thrives on the social and economic vulnerability of young women.

"More than half of the countries that are not on track to reach the goal of universal primary education are also those worst affected by HIV/AIDS."

CNIS - the Commonwealth News and Information Service Issue 212 1 December 2004