Women Need Empowerment in Fight Against AIDS: U.N.

At a recent poverty elimination conference in Beijing, the UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Asia-Pacific said a lack of respect for women is helping drive the spread of HIV/AIDS in the region.

"Gender-based violence and discrimination on grounds of gender drive the HIV and AIDS epidemic," said Nafis Sadik. "Empowerment of women -- equipping them with self-esteem, the knowledge, the ability to protect themselves -- will be of critical importance in winning the battle."

Sadik said: "Women suffer doubly. First, from HIV and AIDS itself, and secondly from the stigma associated with the disease. Women are routinely blamed for infecting their husbands, though it is almost always the men who infect their wives."

According to the envoy, at least 75 million men in Asia regularly engage the services of approximately 10 million female sex workers, leading to changing patterns of infection. "Today, about one-third of all people living with HIV in China are women, compared with one in 10 in 1995," said Sadik.

"China must enlist the support of its male leadership and men generally, encouraging them to adopt consistently responsible sexual behavior, and ensuring that they respect their partners, and all women, as equals," Sadik urged.

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