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HIV
South African women demand action on HIV/AIDS

A statement of concern was drafted following a round table discussion attended by women's organisations and NGOs to share information on their work and to discuss the HIV/AIDS crisis for women. The round table was hosted by Agenda, the Gender AIDS Forum and the AIDS 2000 'Amasiko' programme on June 18th and 19th2000..
We invite organisations to join the many who have already endorsed the statement.
E-mail: editor@agenda.org.za

Statement of Concern on Women and HIV/AIDS

The global social and economic inequalities of HIV/AIDS are starkly apparent, especially for South African women who constitute one of the highest risk groups in the world. HIV/AIDS is a life-threatening but preventable disease affecting millions of women and men in mainstream society; it is a social catastrophe of genocidal proportion that has the capacity to roll back the gains of our democracy and to make our democratic rights meaningless. Already, HIV/AIDS is impacting negatively on development. As women, we recognise HIV/AIDS as a disease of inequality and marginalisation. Our vulnerability arises out of a combination of poverty, unequal access to basic needs and resources, oppressive cultures and traditions, the denial of sexual and reproductive choices and the absence of adequate health-care and information.

Increasing poverty in the South, and especially Africa, places an imperative on governments in Africa and the world to act to ensure ethical and moral choices are made to reduce women's higher risk of HIV infection and mortality. While governments ask women to bear the heavy social burden of nursing the sick and dying, we ask governments to support policy and decisions which include the gender interests and concerns of women and men. Building responsibility for HIV/AIDS, not as a private concern but as a political and social concern, must draw together all our collective strengths. HIV/AIDS research, health-care and prevention budgets should reflect women's gender needs and demands as an urgent priority.

Global inequalities dictate who can access affordable AIDS treatment. It is the responsibility of governments, the United Nations, the global economy and pharmaceutical companies to ensure that affordable access to HIV/AIDS treatment is extended to all HIV positive men and women.

South African women are among the most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS globally - among all countries in the world we have the fastest rate of HIV infection (2.3 million women; 1.8 million men). The main reasons for women's vulnerability (namely the intersection of biology with sexual, social and economic inequality) are not reflected in HIV/AIDS policy which has so far failed to recognise the different gender impacts of the epidemic for women and men.

As South African women we have recently obtained the right to equality. At the same time, as a group, women experience the worst levels of poverty in both urban and rural areas and face further marginalisation and social isolation on a growing scale as a result of HIV/AIDS.

The absence of information and policy on treatment of HIV/AIDS is resulting in destructive mythologies which result in unacceptable human rights abuses against women on an increasing scale and reinforce harmful and oppressive social prejudices

The unacceptable level of gender violence in South Africa (with among the highest reported rape rates in the world) serves to put women at further risk of HIV infection

The stigma that only 'bad girls' get AIDS is misleading and dangerous when those among the groups most at risk are married women who have life-long single partners and adolescent girls

The failure of the ABC campaign (Abstain; Be faithful; Condomise) is evidence that while women want protection against HIV infection, unequal gender relations make sexual negotiation a no-go for marginalised women. * UNAIDS Epidemic Update, June 2000

We demand Government and President Mbeki to act to ensure that women's concerns are recognised in HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care by:
* backing and advancing women-controlled prevention methods for women in the South who are most at risk. Microbicide (a vaginal gel which acts as a spermicide) development and research must be prioritised over more profitable but less urgent research, and the female condom must be made accessible and affordable for all women;
* advancing appropriate research on post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) and ensuring that the availability of PEP by national and provincial government for rape survivors and women at high risk (ie in the instance where male condoms fail) is supported;
* providing retroviral drugs for pregnant women, after speedy, appropriate and well-funded trials;
* making formula/breast-milk substitutes available to HIV positive mothers as part of the state free health programme for children;
* providing free access to HIV testing and pre- and post-counselling and ensuring there is treatment for all symptomatic illnesses experienced by women;
* adopting effective strategies for caring for people living with HIV/AIDS, that ensures that women do not bear a disproportionate burden of caring for those who are HIV positive, neglecting their own health and becoming further economically marginalised;
* ensuring that laws to strengthen and expand women's democratic rights are fully implemented to raise their status in reality and not just on paper.

We extend the call to AIDS Service Organisations, NGOs, industry and civil society to challenge unequal gender relations and the gender subordination of women in all institutions and encourage open discussions about gender power relations and HIV/AIDS.

We call for measures to:
* ensure that cultural practices to prevent HIV/AIDS such as virginity testing and circumcision are not oppressive, life-threatening or infringe the right to bodily integrity of the girl and boy child and women and men;
* ensure public information campaigns correct the false belief that criminal practices such as rape of virgins or children are a cure;
* encourage society, to see it as both men and women's mutual responsibility to demand condom use and protection;
* promote the message that only safe sex is good sex;
* counter the belief that AIDS is a 'women's disease' by including men in reproductive health programmes and by encouraging men to assume mutual responsibility for the spread of the disease and to see the urgency of its prevention for their families, their communities and their country;
* that ensure policy-makers and donor organisations do not siphon scarce resources allocated to women's HIV/AIDS programmes into programmes targeting men, and that gender-balanced policies be prioritised;
We call on women's organisations, men, government, the donor sector, AIDS Service Organisations and NGOs to work together to create a compassionate and enabling society in which women and men assert their equal right to life by freely exercising responsible choices for prevention and treatment. The imperative to treat HIV/AIDS as a collective social responsibility requires action from society and government to bring the pandemic under control and to ensure the longevity of all women, men and children. By promoting a culture of rights and gender equality, responsibility and choice in relation to HIV/AIDS we believe we can end women's overwhelming, biological, social and economic susceptibility to HIV and affirm the right of all people to life and dignity.
Endorsed by - AIDS Law Project, AIDS Legal Network, Agenda, Black Sash, Beatrice Ngcobo on behalf of the Commission on Gender Equality, Capacity Building in AIDS for NGOs (CABANGO), Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) Gender Research Unit, Gender AIDS Forum (GAF), Gender Advocacy Programme, Hlomelikusasa, KwaZulu-Natal Coaltion for Gay and Lesbian Equality, Network on Violence Against Women, Provincial Parliamentary Programme, South African National NGO Coalition (SANGOCO), Sex Workers Education Training and Advocacy (SWEAT), Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Vuka Izithathe Institute for Gender and Economic Development, Women's Legal Centre, Women's Health Project.