'Women are key to Aids action'

2004-07-14 21:23

Johannesburg - The HIV/Aids pandemic will not be reversed unless governments act to ensure women's sexual and reproductive health, an international report said on Wednesday.

The report released at the International Aids Conference in Bangkok showed the percentage of women living with HIV had increased steeply in the past 20 years.

In 1985, 35% of infected people were women. This now stands at 48% worldwide and, in Africa, at almost 60%.

Young African women aged 15-24 are three times more likely to be infected than their male counterparts, said the report.

Thoraya Obaid, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said: "Abstinence is meaningless to women who are coerced into sex. Faithfulness offers little protection to wives whose husbands have several partners or were infected before marriage.

"And, condoms require the co-operation of men."

Women need improved education

She dismissed the ABC approach (Abstain, be Faithful, use Condoms) as useless to women.

Entitled "Women and HIV/Aids: Confronting the Crisis", the report was compiled by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAids), the United Nations Development Fund for Women (Unifem) and UNFPA.

It highlights how discrimination, poverty and gender-based violence help fuel the pandemic.

"The social and economic empowerment of women is key," said Obaid.

Concrete suggestions to decrease women's vulnerability to HIV involved improved education, and economic independence for women, as well as female-controlled protection methods.

"We must reduce violence against women, ensure greater access to HIV prevention and treatment services and protect their property rights" said Kathleen Cravero, deputy executive director of UNAids.

"Women have the right to exercise control over their own bodies and lives".

- SAPA