New focus of AIDS battle: rights for women.As women overtake men among Aids sufferers, a new initiative strives to battle the pandemic pandemic /pan·dem·ic/ (pan-dem´ik) 1. a widespread epidemic of a disease. 2. widely epidemic. pan·dem·ic adj. Epidemic over a wide geographic area. n. by strengthening women's rights The effort to secure equal rights for women and to remove gender discrimination from laws, institutions, and behavioral patterns. The women's rights movement began in the nineteenth century with the demand by some women reformers for the right to vote, known as suffrage, and in the areas of education, employment and gender violence. The Women's Leadership Initiative of the International AIDS Trust announced its formation last week in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . It is a powerful coalition of female world leaders--including Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland The President of Ireland (Irish: Uachtarán na hÉireann) [uːəxt̪ˠəɾaːn̪ˠ n̪ˠə heːɼən̪ˠ] is the head of state of the Republic of Ireland. and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Kathleen Cravero, deputy director of the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS HIV/AIDS Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome . The new organisation will place women's rights at the centre of their efforts to decrease HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. infections among women. "One of the principles of this global coalition is that women are not victims," said Cravero. "We don't just want to talk about the vulnerability of women. We also want to talk about their resilience." The coalition seeks to educate female leaders, activists, health care providers and the general public about how gender inequities raise women's risk of HIV infection. The group will help coordinate and support the work of governments, non-governmental organisations, media, activists, researchers and others so that the links between HIV infection rates and women's rights will be adequately addressed. The Women's Leadership Initiative will combine and coordinate the efforts of different organisations involved in women's rights and the fight against AIDS, including the Ethical Globalisation Initiative based in New York and directed by Mary Robinson; the Association of European Parliamentarians for Africa based in Amsterdam; the Centre for Women's Global Leadership in New Jersey; the International Committee of Women Living with HIV/AIDS based in London; the Centre for AIDS at the University of Pretoria and many others. Women's Enews, September, 2003 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion