In January 2002, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan announced that for the first time, women represented half of HIV-positive individuals worldwide, and more than half in sub-Saharan Africa, the region of the world hit hardest by the epidemic. HIV/AIDS had become a generalized epidemic in many African countries, moving from high-risk groups such as sex workers and injection drug users to the general population, largely because of pervasive gender inequality. The combination of social and political inequalities and severe poverty is lethal to women in the developing world, rendering them disproportionately vulnerable to the virus. Read more>>

Despite women's disproportionate vulnerability, few programs aimed at curbing the pandemic's spread target them or reflect the realities of their lives. If we want to stop HIV/AIDS—in Africa, in Asia, in Latin America, in Eastern Europe, and here in the United States—we must invest in approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care, and support that effectively reach women and young people. To that end, IWHC and a key group of allies has launched and rallied support for a new action agenda: "With Women Worldwide: A Compact to End HIV/AIDS." Read more>>

Our partners worldwide are providing young people with the information, skills, and strategies to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS, and advocating for policies that mandate the gender-sensitive comprehensive sexuality education that will enable future generations to reach adulthood in good health. They are also working to erode the gender inequalities that fuel the epidemic's spread by advocating for women's sexual and reproductive rights and focusing attention on the realities of women's lives. For example:

• In India, we are supporting SANGRAM to serve as the Secretariat of Action Plus, a network of groups fighting to make India's HIV/AIDS policy more responsive to the needs of its population. Drawing on 15 years of work to strengthen and empower women against HIV/AIDS, SANGRAM's activities through Action Plus include documenting the experiences of individuals neglected by national HIV/AIDS policies, including women, and coordinating their testimonies before policymakers.
  Read more about SANGRAM and IWHC's partners in India>>
  
  
• In Cameroun, we are supporting the Society for Women and AIDS in Africa–Cameroun Chapter (SWAAAC). Beyond providing diverse communities with basic, lifesaving information on HIV/AIDS, SWAAC is raising awareness on how gender inequalities and attitudes about sexuality fuel the epidemic's spread, rendering women disproportionately vulnerable.
  Read more about SWAAC and IWHC's partners in Cameroun>> 

 

• In Peru, we are supporting LUNDU, the only Peruvian group working on issues of gender, sexuality, and human rights with Afro-descendent young people, who face entrenched discrimination. LUNDU trains peer educators to dispense vital information on sexuality, human rights, and HIV/AIDS in El Carmen, located in Peru's Ica province—the site of a growing sex tourism industry and the province with the second-highest rate of HIV/AIDS prevalence in Peru.
  Read more about LUNDU and IWHC's partners in Peru>>

Links of interest>>

>>Global HIV/AIDS and PEPFAR

>>Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights (features video interviews with Meena Seshu, founder and secretary general, SANGRAM; and Mabel Bianco, IWHC Board Member and President, Foundation for the Study and Investigation of Women)

>>Human Rights Watch resources on women and HIV/AIDS

Page last updated 9/4/07.