HIV/AIDS: a War on Women.

HIV/Aids: a War on Women. (2008) openDemocracy. The author, Alice Welbourn, asks questions about the extent to which HIV policy harms women: “Numerous countries and foundations are admirably desperate to do something to curb the spread of HIV/Aids. If a policy or a model law appears that has been produced by respected "expert" institutions, it is quite understandable that they will rush to make use of them. But what if those policies or laws, although well intentioned in principle, do not work in practice? This is exactly what is happening in the international response to HIV, where a crisis is developing which is increasingly eroding the rights of women. Public health policies and legislation are being introduced which are not actually rooted in women's experiences. As a consequence, their implementation is at huge cost to women, who in their role as primary unpaid carers of their sick relatives, have in fact formed the backbone of the Aids response in the most affected communities.” Download PDF (93KB)