As the United Nations observed International Women’s Day on 8 March, Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on men to assume the responsibilities that would reduce the “terrifying pattern” of HIV/AIDS infection among the world’s women.

Among the positive behavioural changes that would give more confidence to women would be “change that makes men assume their responsibility – in ensuring an education for their daughters; abstaining from sexual behaviour that puts others at risk; forgoing relations with girls and very young women; and understanding that when it comes to violence against women, there are no grounds for tolerance and no tolerable excuses”, he said in a message marking the Day.

Women were experiencing deepening poverty and would become the majority of the world’s people infected with HIV/AIDS if the current rates of infection continued, Mr. Annan said.
Among the inequitable factors involved in women’s deteriorating situation were poverty, abuse and violence, lack of information, coercion by older men and men having several partners, he said.
In another development, Ms. Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) stressed how women had moved from the margins of the HIV/AIDS pandemic to its very centre.

“Ten years ago, women worldwide made up 38 per cent of people infected with the disease. Today they make up 50 per cent. In some regions, this ratio has tilted further towards women: in the Caribbean it is 52 per cent, in Africa, 58 per cent. Ten years ago, women were at the periphery of the epidemic. Today, they are at its epicenter”, she said during a panel discussion on Women and AIDS marking the Day.
(Source: UN News Service, 9 March)