Public Agenda (Accra)
Adabre Jonathan
29 November 2004
Accra — Gender inequities to blame - Activists
Participants at a day's seminar organized by the Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre have blamed the high numbers of women living with HIV/AIDS on gender inequities and the lack of adequate legislations on women's rights.
The seminar, organized to mark this year's 16 Days of Activism Against Violence, beginning from the 25th of November 2004, drew participation from a large section of civil society, including NGOs, rights advocates, gender activists, and the media. It was under the theme " Gender Violence and HIV/AIDS."
Speaking on the topic: "The link between HIV/AIDS and Human rights", Mrs. Dorcas Coker-Appiah, the Executive Director of the Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Center, argued that the high rate of HIV/AIDS amongst women has to do with the socially constructed roles of women and their relationships with men as defined by society. She stated that the HIV/AIDS pandemic has assumed a female face, in that, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the epidemic has hit girls and women harder than boys and men. This, she said, arises both from the patriarchal definition of gender, which emphasizes male dominance and thus provide a framework for idealizing and legitimizing the subordination of women.
Mrs. Coker- Appiah suggested that the passing of the Domestic Violence bill without further delay would be the surest way to arrest the situation. She regretted that section 42 (g) of the Criminal Code of 1960 (ACT 29), which appears to be in conflict with the Bill has become a pretext for delaying the enactment of the bill into law, arguing that, "The continued existence of the code is a blot on our reputation as a nation, as that section of the code has become anachronistic."
She called on Ghanaians to join the rest of the world to mount the annual campaign on violence against women during the 16-days of the celebrations, and use that as an opportunity to fight against HIV AIDS.
" We cannot win the fight, if we do not fight to eliminate all the discrimination against women in our social lives, which continue to subjugate women and make them more and more susceptible to HIV/AIDS" she stressed.
She urged the government to find a clear policy guideline on issues such as the law of disclosure to a spouse on the HIV status of a spouse, compulsory testing of people who commit sexual harassment, HIV testing before employment, and anti retroviral drugs among others.
" I am aware that a draft National Aids Policy has been under discussion for some years now but unfortunately, it has not been possible to find out the current status of the policy. What ever the status of the policy, I believe it is imperative to adopt a national policy that will address some of the issues that affect women's vulnerability and therefore their susceptibility to HIV infection", she concluded.
Mrs. Jane Mensa Okrah, Executive Director of Family Health Foundation, in her contribution, on the topic " HIV/AIDS in Ghana and Women's Susceptibility" bemoaned the frightening statistics on the increasing numbers of people living with HIVAIDS, stating that out of a total number of 5 million adults and children newly infected with HIV/AIDS during the 2002 period, 3.4 million live in Sub-Saharan Africa, of which
more than 57% are women. She also disclosed that, out of about 42 million adults and children estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS as at the end of 2002, 29.4 million live in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a greater number of infected persons being women.
On the number of HIV/AIDS-related deaths among adults and children during the same period, she said 2.3 million of the 3.1 million worldwide, occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa, again, with a greater proportion being women, leaving behind a great number of orphans.
Reported figures on children of fifteen years, living with HIV/AIDS stand at about 2.4 million and 0.5 million from the worldwide figures of 3.2 million and 0.61 million respectively.
Mrs. Mensa Okrah said, in Ghana the prevalence of HIV/AIDS has risen from 3.4% in 2001 to 3.6 % in 2003, with a percentage increment of 0.2%. She warned that though the percentage increase may seem negligible, the real number of people infected is exceedingly unacceptable, taking into consideration the dynamics of the age groups involved.
From 1986-2003, reported AIDS cases have been high among women of ages 25-29 and men of ages 35-39.
Mrs. Okrah stressed that the high incidence of the disease among women, with a global figure of 55% of infected persons, stems from the fact that women have little power over men in negotiating safe sex practices particularly on the use of condom. She blamed cultural factors such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as well as those that give men exclusive sexual rights over women as being the major contributing agents.
She advised that the way forward is to give priority interventions in the promotion of safe sex, condom use, management of sexually transmitted diseases, blood safety, infection control, voluntary counseling and testing, prevention of mother to child transmission, as well as providing nursing and clinical care, including management of ART.
Madam Lucy Mensah, shared her experience as a person living with HIV/AIDS, and warned that the disease is no respecter of age, colour, race or creed, social status, either rich or poor. She called for compassion and support for people living with HIV/AIDs.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2004 Public Agenda. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
