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Women and HIV/AIDS - The Human Rights Challenge |
| International Women's Day
2004 looks this year at the growing toll that HIV/AIDS is taking on
women and at the critical role they play in the fight against the spread
of the disease. In his Message on International Women's Day, observed on 8 March, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan notes that women are increasingly bearing the brunt of the epidemic. If the current rates of infection continue, women will soon become the majority of infected people worldwide. Moreover, the social impact of the pandemic on women and girls is greater: women take on the care of family members who contract HIV/AIDS, putting severe constraints on their access to education, employment, food cultivation and treatment. Violence against women, both a cause and a consequence of the epidemic, adds another major risk factor for transmission. The following articles on women and AIDS have been selected from past issues of the UN Chronicle and its online edition. Issue 1, 2004 Two Young Girls, One Common Enemy: AIDS By Sherry W. Sacino http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2004/issue1/0104p02.asp SystemWatch Protecting Peacekeepers from AIDS By Tobias Kuhlmann http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2004/issue1/0104p01.asp Issue 2, 2003 Exploited, Not Educated Trafficking of Women and Children in Southeast Asia By Mikel Flamm http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2003/issue2/0203p34.html Issue 1, 2003 First Person It Is Not As If Somebody Said There Would Be No Miracle Anonymous http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2003/issue1/0103p58.html Web Article Interview with Julia Taft The Assistant Administrator and Director in the UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, discusses the implications of AIDS on the status of women. http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2003/webArticles/052103_interview_julia_taft.html New Partnerships Emerging in AIDS Education: The United Nations, Governments and Sex Workers Join Hands to Confront HIV/AIDS By Nuchhi R. Currier http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2003/webArticles/012403_aids_education.html Issue 2, 2002 Breaking the Silence By Cathy Shepherd http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2002/issue2/0202p24_breaking_the_silence.html Issue 4, 2000 The Chronicle Interview Wendy Fitzwilliam, former Miss Universe and UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador, discusses the reproductive health needs of women and the importance of promoting family planning. http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2000/issue4/0400p71.htm Issue 1, 1999 Then I Open Up and See The Person Falling Here Is Me By Benjamin Weil http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/1999/issue1/0199p20.htm |