HIV/AIDS

Citation:

Utas, Mats, and Fanny Ruden. 2009. Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by Peacekeeping Operations in Contemporary Africa. 2. Uppsala, SE: The Nordic Africa Institute.

Authors: Fanny Ruden, Mats Utas

Abstract:

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Health, HIV/AIDS, Humanitarian Assistance, International Organizations, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Peacekeeping, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Africa

Year: 2009

Citation:

Mazurana, Dyan, and Khristopher Carlson. 2006. "The Girl Child and Armed Conflict: Recognizing and Addressing Grave Violations of Girls’ Human Rights." UN Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) Expert Group Meeting, Florence, September 25-28.

Authors: Dyan Mazurana, Khristopher Carlson

Abstract:

During armed conflict, girls are subject to widespread and, at times, systematic forms of human rights violations that have mental, emotional, spiritual, physical and material repercussions. These violations include illegal detention with or without family members, abduction and forced removal from families and homes, disappearances, torture and other inhuman treatment, amputation and mutilation, forced recruitment into fighting forces and groups, slavery, sexual exploitation, increased exposure to HIV/AIDS, and a wide range of physical and sexual violations, including rape, enforced pregnancy, forced prostitution, forced marriage and forced child-bearing. There is urgent need for better documentation, monitoring and reporting on the extreme suffering that armed conflict inflicts on girls, as well as on the many roles girls play during conflict and its aftermath. Such information and response mechanisms are needed for the purpose of strengthening and developing policy and programs to prevent and or address these grave rights violations. This paper documents and analyses the grave human rights violations girls endure during situations of armed conflict and offers recommendations on preventing and or addressing those harms. The paper begins by offering a concise overview of current trends in armed conflict and the impact of armed conflict on children. It discusses existing international initiatives that identify grave and systematic violations against girls during armed conflict and reviews the most pertinent international legal standards relating to these violations. To better understand the gender dimensions, the paper describes and analyzes the experiences of girls during armed conflicts, noting gendered patterns to the grave rights violations committed against them. The paper offers examples of some best practices to address these violations. The paper concludes with concrete recommendations to governments, the United Nations and NGOs.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Girls, Health, HIV/AIDS, Households, International Law, International Organizations, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, NGOs, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Sexual Slavery, Torture, Sexual Torture

Year: 2006

Citation:

Upton, Rebecca L. 2003. “‘Women Have No Tribe’: Connecting Carework, Gender, and Migration in an Era of HIV/AIDS in Botswana.” Gender and Society 17 (2): 314–22.

Author: Rebecca L. Upton

Abstract:

The country of Botswana currently has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world. Government and international aid agencies have undertaken initiatives to address the rapidly growing epidemic, but few measures address the current crisis of care as a key element in that process. In this article, the author uses case study data to highlight how women in Northern Botswana are affected by the increasing burden of caregiving to children who are orphaned as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In particular, she describes how the role of women as caregivers in communities has been transformed as a result of the HIV/AIDS crisis. She suggests that the intersecting cultural patterns of migration and reproduction are central to understanding the spread of the disease in the current emerging crisis of care.

Keywords: Botswana, HIV/AIDS, fosterage, migration, reproduction

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Women, Health, HIV/AIDS, Reproductive Health, Households Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Botswana

Year: 2003

Citation:

Izumi, Kaori, ed. 2006. Reclaiming Our Lives: HIV and AIDS, Women’s Land and Property Rights, and Livelihoods in Southern and Eastern Africa. Cape Town, Zimbabwe: HSRC Press.

Author: Kaori Izumi

Abstract:

This collection of narratives from Southern and East Africa aims to raise awareness not only about the heavy impact of HIV and AIDS in the region but also about the active steps being taken by many grassroot organisations to respond to the crisis. It is evident that while the pandemic is biting deeply into the social fabric of communities. It is also galvanising ordinary women and men to respond to with compassion and conviction, and to find innovative ways of defending and promoting the rights of HIV-affected women and children. From this perspective, HIV and AIDS can be seen as an opportunity to expose the immense human cost of discriminatory laws and practices, and point to the social, policy and legislative changes that are necessary if the pandemic is to be combated effectively. (HSRC Press)

Topics: Gender, Women, Health, HIV/AIDS, Livelihoods, Rights, Land Rights, Property Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa

Year: 2006

Citation:

Villarreal, Marcela. 2006. “Changing Customary Land Rights and Gender Relations in the Context of HIV/AIDS in Africa.” Paper presented at Colloque International "At the Frontier of Land Issues: Social Embeddedness of Rights and Public Policy”, Montpellier, May 16-19.

Author: Marcela Villarreal

Abstract:

The effect of prime-age adult death and its consequences on access to land for the survivors has not been fully explored nor incorporated into policy regardless the fact that high adult mortality is now the lived reality in countries affected by HIV/AIDS, particularly in Africa. This paper explores the gendered relationships between adult death due to HIV/AIDS and changes in land rights for the survivors particularly widows, In many African societies, women have traditionally accessed land through marriage. The stability and longevity of marriage guaranteed wife’s continued access to land and other productive resources. However, with HIV/AIDS, and consequences of high mortality among prime-age adult men, women’s access to land is increasingly becoming tenuous. This is partly due to break-down of rules and institutions (including but not limited to wife inheritance) that have traditionally guaranteed women’s usufruct and other forms of access to land. This breakdown of rule and institutions, we argue puts women at highr risks of contracting HIV/AIDS. This is not merely an individual risk, but a societal one, in which the epidemic will continue to perpetuate itself due to overt gender inequalities to ownership and control of land resources.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS, gender, land, property, customary law

Topics: Age, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Health, HIV/AIDS, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Africa

Year: 2006

Citation:

Swaminathan, Hema. 2008. Women’s Property Rights HIV and AIDS & Domestic Violence: Research Findings from Two Districts in South Africa and Uganda. Cape Town, ZA: Human Sciences Research Council.

Author: Hema Swaminathan

Abstract:

Women's property and inheritance rights are recognised in international law and in a growing number of countries worldwide, yet women in many developing countries do not have the right to own or inherit property. At the same time, women are increasingly heading up households and are in critical need of land and property for economic security, particularly in the context of the AIDS epidemic - in fact, secure property rights are believed to be a factor in reducing women's risk of contracting HIV and in protecting them from domestic violence. To better understand the role of tenure security in protecting against, and mitigating the effects of, HIV and violence, this book explores these linkages in Amajuba, South Africa and Iganga, Uganda. Results from the qualitative study revealed that property ownership, while not easily linked to women's ability to prevent HIV infection, can nonetheless mitigate the impact of AIDS, and enhance a woman's ability to leave a violent situation. (HSRC Press)

Topics: Economies, Domestic Violence, Gender, Women, Land Tenure, Health, HIV/AIDS, International Law, Households, Rights, Property Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa, Uganda

Year: 2008

Citation:

Izumi, Kaori, ed. 2006. The Land and Property Rights of Women and Orphans in the Context of HIV/AIDS: Case Studies from Zimbabwe. Cape Town, Zimbabwe: HSRC Press.

Author: Kaori Izumi

Abstract:

In Zimbabwe, as in many other parts of Africa, agriculture is the principal source of livelihood for widows and orphans. Within this reality, a groundbreaking study was commissioned to investigate the land and property rights of women and orphans in Zimbabwe in the context of HIV/AIDS. It also examines the coping strategies, in terms of land-related livelihoods, adopted by widows and other vulnerable women affected by the pandemic. Providing revealing empirical evidence and new insights based on interviews with key informants, focus group discussions and a semi-structured interview questionnaire, the study is framed around four Zimbabwean sites located in communal, resettlement and urban areas Buhera, Bulawayo, Chimanimani and Seke. The research critically examines Zimbabwe’s land and agriculture policies, and the utilization and efficacy of legal redress. It suggests and develops policy responses to cushion the impact of HIV/AIDS on local communities, especially dispossessed women. While confirming the vulnerability of widows and other categories of poor and vulnerable women and children to property rights violation, the study also analyses the critical roles played by women in establishing and managing urban and rural support initiatives. (Abstract from book description)

Annotation:

• Workshop (convened by FAO, 2004) found HIV and AIDS had weakened the property rights of women and children, because of the stigma associated with the pandemic. Widows told how they had been accused of causing the death of their husband by witchcraft or by infecting him with HIV and AIDS. In this context, evictions of widows and violations of their land and property rights had been prolific. Despite the legal provisions established in the 1997 Administration of Estates Amendment, women’s property and inheritance rights remain vulnerable. This is partly because of persisting traditional practices and norms pertaining to women’s land and property rights, lack of public knowledge about legal rights (not least among women themselves), an inaccessible judiciary and a dichotomy between statutory and customary laws (Intro)

• The deteriorating health and economic condition of HIV-positive widows and other women on their own, along with the social stigma associated with the disease, have had the additional effect of eroding their power to defend their property rights against claims made by in-laws

Topics: Economies, Gender, Women, Girls, Boys, Governance, Health, HIV/AIDS, Livelihoods, Rights, Land Rights, Property Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Zimbabwe

Year: 2006

Citation:

Izumi, Kaori. 2009. Reclaiming Rights - Reclaiming Livelihoods: A Brief on Secure Land and Property Rights for Women in Sub-Saharan Africa in the Era of AIDS. Rome, Italy: Food and Agriculture Organization.

Author: Kaori Izumi

Abstract:

Secure property rights and sustainable means of livelihoods for women are pre-conditions for food security, poverty alleviation, HIV prevention and gender equality. Emergency support is urgently needed for women who have lost their property and are evicted from their homes.

Topics: Agriculture, Economies, Poverty, Food Security, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Health, HIV/AIDS, Rights, Land Rights, Property Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa

Year: 2009

Citation:

Chapoto, Antony, T. S. Jayne, and Nicole M. Mason. 2011. “Widows’ Land Security in the Era of HIV/AIDS: Panel Survey Evidence from Zambia.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 59 (3): 511–47. doi:10.1086/658346.

Authors: Antony Chapoto, T. S. Jayne, Nicole M. Mason

Abstract:

In areas of Africa hard hit by HIV/AIDS, there are growing concerns that many women lose access to land after the death of their husbands. However, there remains a dearth of quantitative evidence on the proportion of widows who lose access to their deceased husbands’ land, whether they lose all or part of that land, and whether there are factors specific to the widow, her family, or the broader community that influence her ability to maintain rights to land. This study examines these issues using average treatment effects models with propensity score matching applied to nationally-representative panel data of 5,342 rural households surveyed in 2001 and 2004. Results are highly variable, with roughly a third of households incurring the death of a male household head controlling less than 50 percent of the land they had prior to their husband’s death, while over a quarter actually controlled as much or even more land than while their husbands were alive. Widows who were in relatively wealthy households prior to their husband’s death lose proportionately more land than widows in households that were relatively poor. Older widows and widows related to the local headman enjoy greater land security. Women in matrilineal inheritance areas were no less likely to lose land than women in patrilineal areas.

Topics: Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Health, HIV/AIDS, Households, Rights, Land Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Zambia

Year: 2011

Citation:

Zea, Maria Cecilia, Carol A. Reisen, Fernanda T. Bianchi, Felisa A. Gonzales, Fabián Betancourt, Marcela Aguilar, and Paul J. Poppen. 2013. “Armed Conflict, Homonegativity and Forced Internal Displacement: Implications for HIV among Colombian Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Individuals.” Culture, Health & Sexuality 15 (7): 788–803.

Authors: Maria Cecilia Zea, Carol A. Reisen, Fernanda T. Bianchi, Felisa A. Gonzales, Fabián Betancourt, Marcela Aguilar, Paul J. Poppen

Abstract:

Colombia has endured six decades of civil unrest, population displacement and violence. We examined the relationships between contextual conditions, displacement and HIV among gay, bisexual and transgender individuals in Bogotá, Colombia. A total of 19 key informants provided information about internal displacement of sexual minorities. Life-history interviews were conducted with 42 participants aged 18 to 48 years and included questions about displacement experiences, sexual behaviour, life prior to displacement and participants' economic and social situation in Bogotá. The interplay of a variety of factors – including internal conflict and violence, homonegativity and ‘social cleansing’, gender and sexual identity and poverty – strongly shaped the varied experiences of displacement. Migration, sexual violence, exchange sex and low rates of HIV testing were risk factors that increased vulnerability for HIV in this displaced sample. Although displacement and HIV in Colombia are major problems, both are understudied.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, IDPs, Economies, Poverty, Gender, Health, HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ, Sexual Violence, Sexuality Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2013